A new mission

by ryuxdragonx

A dammed long one, took me pains to write this...

7. Part 5

He believed that she was too much of a pacifist to consider that she sold the secrets of ZAFT to OMNI – and his beliefs were confirmed when he found out that Dearka and Athrun, his remaining teammates had joined her to try to bring about peace and stop the endless slaughter of innocents, whether Natural or Coordinator.

For Yzak Joule, he had become a spy to prevent something like what the Talon was doing. He did it to help redeem his own conscience that had been in turmoil, to help others, and to finally see some peace. He had joined without his mother or father's consent, the only thing that he had kept in mind was what Dearka had told him – that even though enemies Coordinators and Naturals were, they were all still human and had their own vulnerabilities.

He joined the Clyne Faction of the Liberation Forces to help ferret out any dissent from those who wanted war again – and it kept him out of the media spotlight that had been shed on his mother's activities under Patrick Zala's rule. But now, he had been captured and taken prisoner aboard the ship he had infiltrated – his position compromised by his haste to warn those in Panama, PLANT, and Orb to try to get all of them to concentrate their three-way allied forces to destroy the Talon once and for all.

He knew that it was reckless and knew that he probably deserved to be captured, but the Talon never knew who they were dealing with. This also gave him a good opportunity to return to the front lines and perhaps take out a few of the Talon's mobile suits before any serious damage occurred and if he survived, warn Panama of the second wave that was probably going to follow if they succeeded in defeating the first wave.

Sven Anderson was one who never liked to leave things alone, and Yzak knew that as he had been undercover for nearly seven months prior to their attack on Orb. He had tried to warn Senator Amalfi that his aide Roger was a traitor, but apparently his messages didn't get through in time. He had hoped it was a small repayment of him not being able to protect Amalfi's son, Nicol, from his death in the war – but it wasn't enough.

He would have done more to sabotage the Talon and reveal more of their plans to his contacts and to Lacus, except for Anderson's right hand man, the boy with a wicked looking scar down his left side named Nikolai Mercus. The boy's voice and mannerism reminded him a lot of the pilot of the Freedom and Strike and he had inquired about it – and found out that Nikolai, or his codename, Griever, was the clone-brother of the pilot of the Gundams, Kira Yamato.

That had been a shock…

He wasn't able to do anything about Griever because of the boy's uncanny abilities that almost rivaled ESPer status, something Yzak thought only existed in legends and myths of the old days. And those abilities prevented him from sending out more messages to PLANT and Orb about the Talon – for the fear of compromising his position early.

But now…now he had to escape – and it had been easy lifting the keys from the guard that had escorted him to his cell. It was an electronic panel cell, but Yzak had tinkered with its inner system, using the keys he had pilfered from the guard's belt, making it so that a bit of the door slid open, enough for him to put his hands through and pull it open, slowly and inch by inch.

He pulled on the door slightly, quirking a small smile as a loud scrape of metal against metal got the door further open. This time a fairly large shaft of light poured in from the hall and he knew he had alerted the guards surrounding the cells. He moved behind the darkened section of the door, crouched and waited.

"What the…" the voice of a guard sudden said and Yzak sprang from his hiding place, tackling the guard in the waist. His right arm grabbed the guard's rifle before his left hand knocked out the guard with a vicious left hook. Swinging the weapon he had acquired to bear upon the second guard, Yzak didn't hesitate as he pressed the trigger, unleashing a hail of bullets that struck the second guard – killing her instantly.

He paused for a moment, his eyes and ears alert for any signs of additional guards. He knew that he didn't have too much time as his captors always checked in regularly. He gathered a few clips from the knocked out guard's belt before he stood up and walked out of his now opened cell.

Moving quickly through the corridors he ducked into unoccupied passage ways on board the Retribution as soldiers or technicians ran through, the general alarm klaxon sounding for all hands to battle stations. Based on when he was captured, he estimated that the battle had been going for at least almost an hour…which meant that Panama was putting up a really strong fight.

As he slipped into the Retribution's hangar bay he crouched behind a stack of crates, his blue eyes narrowed as he watched the Strike Daggers, GINNs, and many of the other motley assortments of mobile suits the Talon had collected over the years in secret, launch away.

He spotted his own mobile suit, the Duel, still sitting in its place in the hangar bay…except it had been surrounded by quite a few armed guards – to prevent him from reaching his suit if he escaped from his cell.

This was going to take some tricky stealth work, he realized as he pursed his lips and counted the guards, noting what kind of weapons they were carrying. He wasn't that great at hand-to-hand combat, no that was Dearka's forte, but he was an excellent sniper…

Glancing down at the rifle he carried, he switched its settings to a single shot sniper and looked through the scope. Sighting with the farthest guard from the pack of guards, he waited until the loud rumbling of the other MS launching to muffle the sound of his rifle. He squeezed off a single shot, a wry grin forming as the guard fell, oblivious to the others and immediately sighted again. Pulling the trigger again and again, he felled each one of the guards, until three guards in the front remained – their eyes staring straight ahead, unaware of the others' demise.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing here!" a voice suddenly boomed behind him and Yzak spun without thinking, jabbing the butt of his rifle into the stomach of the soldier that had spotted him, before he brought up the rifle again and knocked the guard down to the floor, blood running from a fairly deep cut on the man's temple.

He was about to turn back to figure out a way to distract the guards when he spotted the soldier he had knocked out was carrying a few grenades for the land invasion after they had beaten down Panama's forces. A small grin lit up his face as he reached down and pulled one of the grenades from the soldier's belt.

He took the pin out and threw the grenade to the far side of the wall, where after a few seconds it exploded, throwing shrapnel into the air and alerting the three guards that had been guarding the Duel, along with other soldiers who were in the hangar bay. Like moths to the light, they converged on the area where the grenade exploded and Yzak made his break for the Duel.

He quickly climbed aboard the Duel and closed the cockpit before any of the soldiers realized what had happened. Fingers flying over the keyboard, he brought up the specs and data for his Duel and activated the thrusters.

Stepping forward, he heard the metallic ping of soldiers firing rifles at him, and activated his phase-shift armor. The bullets started to ricochet off of his Gundam and he walked forward before jamming the thrusters forward and flying out of the hangar bay of the Retribution.

What greeted him was the golden sun, dripping its halo on a bloodied battlefield…

Athrun activated his double-bladed beam saber once more and brought it down on a Strike Dagger, cutting it in half. He spun around and decapitated a Dagger and a GINN. He knew that he had promised Cagalli not to kill any soldiers, but at the rate he was fighting, his promise to her wasn't going to last that long.

There seemed to be no end to the wave of Talon forces. For them to accumulate so many mobile suits…were that many people displeased with the peace, so much to even go up against their own forces?

His targeting computer bleeped at him and showed him another wave of mobile suits coming towards him. Behind him, the various cannons and missiles from the Panama OMNI warships, the Archangel, and Eternal spoke to defend themselves. He was tired, frustrated, and generally pissed at the Talon…

A seed forming in his mind suddenly broke and Athrun narrowed his eyes, everything suddenly becoming clearer by the second. As he lined up a targeting solution, a part of him realized that this was what Lacus had told him, the seed-mode he usually fell into during combat.

He didn't know what ramifications it had on him, but right now, he used all of the skills he had. Firing, he watched as a multitude of green and red as his beam weaponry found their targets and destroyed some of them. Letting the trigger go before it depleted anymore of the energy expended from his phase shift armor, he flew forward and slashed down at the remaining mobile suits that were still left, destroying all of them.

An explosion behind him made him turn around to see the Eternal hit by a few missiles from a nearby Talon ship and he dived down towards it. Holding his double beamed saber in one hand, he took out his single saber and activated it before throwing it like a boomerang at the ship. The saber tore through the ship before spinning back to him. As he caught the hilt of his saber and deactivated it, the ship exploded.

Shielding his eyes against the explosion, Athrun was suddenly thrown forward against his controls and he grunted against the force. He turned slightly to see a mobile suit that looked like a cross between his Justice and Kira's Freedom. It bristled with heavy weaponry…

"We've have some unfinished business Athrun Zala," Kira's voice spoke over the comm., but Athrun realized it wasn't Kira, but his look alike.

"Just tell me this, who are you and why does the Talon want to destroy the peace?" Athrun replied, flying a bit away before holding out his double beam saber in a defensive position.

"I am Griever and as for why the Talon want to take peace away? You of all people should know why," the Kira look-alike replied, "take a look at what your father did and tell me then why should we not have our revenge against ZAFT and OMNI."

The comm. suddenly clicked off and Athrun ducked as Griever charged at him with two beam sabers in his hands. His specs read that Griever's Gundam was called the Liberty, an ironic name, he thought and it was armed to the toe. The Gundam was a walking death machine…

He parried with his double saber before lashing out with his feet, kicking Griever away.

Athrun fired one of his cannons, but it missed the Liberty and he defended himself in a flurry of movements as the Liberty attacked with relentless force. Suddenly a niggling sense told him to get out of the way and he pushed upward, just as a crimson beam of a Lohengrin cannon passed through where he had been, narrowly missing Griever.

He didn't get a chance to get a breather as the Liberty tackled him from below. Athrun batted him away and turned slightly to see who had fired the beam and noticed that a mobile suit was shimmering out of what looked like a mirage colloid like the one on Nicol's Blitz. Except the mobile suit that deactivated its mirage colloid was not jet black, but a dark blue-green. He didn't have anymore time as he parried another attack from the Liberty.

"You will fall today Justice," the pilot of the other mobile suit suddenly blared from his comm. system and he blinked, surprised to hear an angry female voice.

He paid for his momentary surprise as the Liberty slammed into him and he fell towards the water. Athrun quickly activated his thrusters at the last moment to prevent himself from smashing into the water at the wrong angle and hovered above the water. He suddenly moved to his right as missiles exploded out of the water, headed towards the Liberty and the unknown mobile suit.

Cursing silently at the ineptitude of OMNI's military forces for nearly killing him, he followed the path of the missiles and as they exploded, activated his heat seeking screens. He burst through the cloud the missiles created and yelled a war cry as he brought his beam saber down upon the Liberty.

He met resistance as Griever brought his two sabers up in an 'x' above his head, but Athrun wasn't finished with him yet and kicked the mobile suit hard in the middle, sending the Liberty spiraling away.

"Look behind you!" the female voice suddenly blared and Athrun narrowed his eyes as he was tossed around his cockpit, the mirage colloid mobile suit slamming into him. He twisted slightly to avoid being skewered by the suit's beam saber and tried to stab his own into the suit, but without success.

Suddenly the pressure on him was released and he looked up to see a rouge colored suit crashing against the mirage colloid suit, sending it hard down into the water.

"Watch your own back bitch," Cagalli's voice broadcasted over the battle comm. System and Athrun stared at the Strike Rouge, shocked.

"Cagalli…" he whispered.

Phase Twelve – Return to the Battlefield II

Kira looked around the empty house that Cagalli lived in. He hadn't seen his sister for at least a couple of days since their fight. He knew that usually by now, she would have already talked to him, but she hadn't even responded to his calls on her cell or to her governmental office. Even Kisaka wasn't available. More so, when he tried to reach Lacus, she was oddly not available… Haruka had gone home the day before, Taylor wasn't responding to his calls…

"Good day, Mr. Yamato. Do you need anything?" Cagalli's butler approached him.

"Uh…no, but where's Cagalli?"

"She has gone out of the country for some business. She left this for you," the butler handed him a folded note with her loopy handwriting.

"Out of the country?" Kira asked. That was odd…in Cagalli's condition; he knew that she wouldn't leave the country…

"Yes sir," the butler said before walking away to attend to whatever other business he had.

Kira stared at the note, a sense of déjà vu overcoming him as it was the same thing as what Athrun did. With a slight start, he realized what Cagalli did… 'out of the country'. "She did not," he whispered to himself as he opened the note and read it contents. It was short and to the point. Cagalli had left for the battlefield like Athrun did. He didn't know where Lacus was…

For the first time in his whole life, Kira had never felt so abandoned and alone. As he curled up and sank to the floor, tears starting to fall out of his eyes, he realized that he had driven everyone that he loved and loved him away. He pushed away his parents, no matter the fact that they adopted him as their son; he pushed away Cagalli, he pushed away his best friend Athrun, and most of all, he pushed away Lacus by not even going to her for consolation.

Everyone left him because he was too consumed in the fact that he thought the world revolved around him. He didn't realize that his friends were trying to help him out of the shell he had built around him. Haruka and Taylor had cracked the shell further after the war, but it had been built again with the appearance of his look-alike…

Athrun, Cagalli, his parents, and Lacus had tried to break the shell again, but with each of their attempts he hid further from them, until he had retreated too much to drive them away. Fear was what had gripped him – fear of what would happen if he let himself be open and vulnerable to them…he feared for them, for himself, for the unknown future.

But the future was what Athrun and Cagalli had in mind. What Lacus, his soul mate had. They understood that peace had to be fought for, with words and with weaponry like the Justice and the Strike Rouge.

A sudden thought occurred to him as he folded up his sister's letter, pocketing it. There was only one place where Athrun was able to hide the Justice in complete secrecy, even from Cagalli. Morganroete.

He dashed upstairs and burst into his room, running to the corner where he had tossed Athrun's letter and I.D. card to the side days ago in his fit of uncontrollable anger and uncrumpled the letter. Scanning it quickly his eyes focused on Erica Simmons' name. She would have known about Justice and helped Athrun built it…

Holding the I.D. card up, Kira gripped it tightly before making a decision…

He refolded Athrun's letter and pocketed it with Cagalli's before he dashed down the stairs and out the door, Tori following him. Running to where Athrun's car was parked underneath the shade of a few trees, he opened the door and pulled down the visor, a wry grin forming on his face as the keys fell to his lap.

Turning on the ignition, he quickly shifted to first gear and sped off, leaving a cloud of dust and pebbles in his wake. He knew the way to the former Morganroete building and hopefully would be able to find Erica to ask her what he had a hunch on.

As Kira sped away, Cagalli's butler watched, a wistful smile on his face. He picked up the phone and dialed a number. After a few seconds, the line on the other end was picked up and he spoke into it in a calm voice.

"He's on his way. You can meet him down in the sublevels."

"Watch your own back bitch," Cagalli said in a dark voice as she kicked the mirage-colloid suit in the back, sending it down into the water. She hovered next to the Justice and opened up a private comm. channel to Athrun, smiling as she saw that he wasn't injured or anything.

"Cagalli…" Athrun looked shocked and she grinned.

"Surprised?"

"What…are you doing here?" Athrun asked, a frown forming on his face, "you shouldn't be here-"

"Save it," she replied, cutting him off as she wiped the grin off of her face, "you looked like you could use some help so I gave it."

"Thanks, but-"

"Athrun, I took your letter to heart, but I can't just sit around doing nothing. You know me. I'd rather fight than sit in front of so many council members, trying to decide a political way out of this whole stupid thing," she explained.

Suddenly she swerved to the left as two beams of green shot between them and she switched her comm. to audio only before she fired back down in the water. Moments later, the mirage-colloid suit exploded out of the water and she finally got a good read on the suit. It labeled itself on her tactical screen as the Claw…

Inwardly she wrinkled her nose at such a name – it was the stupidest name anyone could name Gundam… Whoever built it was an idiot.

"How dare you!" the pilot of the Claw suddenly exploded on her comm. and Cagalli pulled out one of her two beam sabers. The Strike Rouge was essentially Strike Gundam in Aile mode – with all of its weaponry on hand.

Activating it she parried a blow towards her midsection before she countered, swiping at the Claw. Both Gundams danced in the air as they charged at each other, neither one giving ground to another. Cagalli narrowed her eyes as she tried to predict the other pilot's movements. She was extremely fast…

Suddenly she dove to the ground as Athrun came up behind her, his beam rifle blazing. She twisted and headed back up, underneath the Claw's feet, and also shot at the mobile suit. The Claw panicked and swerved to avoid both attacks. Cagalli grimly smiled as she chased after the mobile suit. A sudden proximity warning made her swerve to her left and she hovered in the air, facing the mobile suit that read Liberty on her sensors.

"Greetings, Princess Cagalli. I did not expect to see you in battle. This would be a boon if you were to die," the chilling voice of Kira made her freeze, but she shook her head, trying to convince her numbed brain that it wasn't Kira, it was his look-alike – the one who tried to kill her.

"I'm not dying today," she said just as the Justice flew up next to her, hovering protectively. The Claw joined the Liberty on the other side, two against two…

Kanoko Yamato braced herself against the bulkhead of the room she and her husband had stowed away in as another rocking explosion hit the Babylon. She stared at her husband who grimly held onto a railing on another bulkhead. "We can't sit here and do nothing!" she half-yelled at him through the alarms that started blaring throughout the ship.

"I know!" he replied loudly, "but what the hell do you want me to do?"

"Sooner or later they're going to find out we're here. We can't just sit here."

"Yeah," her husband pushed himself off of the bulkhead and Kanoko noticed that there was a look in his eyes that she had only seen twice. Once was when he discovered the true purpose of her running away with Kira, the other, was when he swore that he would protect her and Kira with his own life after betraying his employers so many years ago. That look was now back – and while it reminded Kanoko of the past, it also made her very afraid.

"You remember what I taught you?" he asked.

"Point, shoot, and don't let go," Kanoko half-joked, remembering that when Keiji became her husband, he had taught her the rudimentary basics of firing a gun, in case anything happened to them that had to have her protect Kira on her own.

"That's a good girl," he grinned at her as they left the room they had hidden themselves in and headed into the alarm-blaring hallways. She followed Keiji as he headed up to the control deck, to help Kisaka and the Babylon. They occasionally held to the walls as explosions shuddered throughout the warship, making their steps uneven. Finally, they reached the bridge.

Keiji opened the door and Kanoko's eyes widened as she saw what was going on. What surprised her was finding the long distinctive pink hair of Lacus sitting in a command chair behind Kisaka, who was yelling to his crewmen to get missiles online. She glanced to her left and saw that the communications chair in the command center of the bridge was empty, along with some blood that indicated that the console probably electrocuted its previous occupant when a nasty hit made it overload.

She bit her lip and headed towards the console, while she noticed that Keiji headed towards a firing control station in the front. Putting on the headset, she tapped into the battle network comm. system. She wasn't really experienced with any of the controls, but she had spent a lot of time going over computer systems, and based on what she saw at first glance, they were similar.

"Keiji…what the-" she heard Kisaka say before she turned up the volume on the headset, and switched frequencies.

She touched a few more buttons and a battle data overlay appeared on her side screen, showing her yellow for allies, red for enemies. There was a lot more red than what she had expected. The triangles of yellow indicated the Gundams Justice, Strike Rouge, and Buster and they were surrounded by red triangles that said Claw and Liberty.

Kanoko didn't know too much about tactics, but she did know that the Babylon was suffering a lot of damage. Suddenly she noticed a new red triangle headed towards their way. "Strike Rouge, fall back to defensive position. We've got a new mobile suit on approach," she keyed the comm. to Cagalli's mobile suit.

"Who's this?" was the confused reply, but Kanoko noticed that she was moving towards them.

"It's Kanoko Yamato, Cagalli," she replied.

"Mrs. Yamato!" Cagalli's face appeared on the corner of another screen and she barely kept a smile off of her face to see such a shocked expression on her face.

"Yes dear. We can talk about it later though. The new suit's called the Corsair and its specs are unknown."

"Oh great," Cagalli groused.

"Doesn't look that tough," this time a boy with blond hair and sharp purple eyes that contrasted his tanned face appeared beneath Cagalli's. Kanoko realized that this was Dearka Elsman, the boy Athrun had told her about.

"We've also got missiles on approach. We'll draw them off, but watch for friendly fire," Kanoko interrupted them.

"Aye ma'am," Dearka replied before clicking the comm. off.

She hoped that the battle ended soon. At the rate, both sides were in practical stalemate…and they were losing a lot of good men and women.

Athrun knew that he could handle two mobile suits at once; it was just the matter of what the hell each was going to do. He watched the Claw and Liberty carefully. Let them make the first move…then he would be able to move defensively. He knew he had to finish them quickly, the Babylon, Eternal, and Archangel were suffering heavy damage with each second he was wasting time with these guys.

Suddenly the Claw charged at him, twirling its beam saber in its hand. Athrun braced himself as he hovered defensively. His eyes darted to the right as the Liberty flew to his left, to outflank him from behind. Moving to his right, he blocked a blow from the Liberty before reach out and firing a few shots at the Claw.

The beam rifle's ammo did nothing to even stop the Claw. Athrun was about to activate his other beam saber to throw at the Claw when a blur of blue-gray knocked the Claw far away where it started to tumble to the ground, only activating its thrusters at the last minute from slamming into the ocean again.

"Sorry I took so long. Bit of a mess in the Retribution," Yzak's voice came over the comm., audio only and just as he finished a huge explosion over took one of the Talon's warships that was in the ocean, and Athrun shielded his eyes from the glare.

The Duel Gundam hovered in front of him and Athrun could almost imagine a smirk on the Gundam's face if it had the ability to do so. A few seconds later, flares of retreat flew up from another ship of the Talon forces, and Athrun turned slightly to see both the Claw and Liberty hesitating before they reluctantly turned tail and headed away, back out to sea.

Athrun realized that the battle was over…they had won to keep Panama safe…but there was also numerous casualties and wounded. They had won, but he knew that the Talon wasn't going to stop until many more were dead. This was only the first round…

The late afternoon sunset brought relief as a cool breeze blew over the remaining warships in Panama, some trying to salvage heavily damaged ships and crew, while others were making quick repairs to the other ships that were still able to function. The OMNI forces had even offered the repair the ships of the Liberation Forces and with Princess Cagalli there, no one could refuse. Though Captain Andy Bartfield didn't like OMNI crews running all over what was technically a ZAFT ship, he still didn't refuse help in repairs were it was needed.

Both OMNI and LF knew that another attack was inevitable, but they also knew that the Talon had been hit hard and were regrouping, as the one of the main ships that blew up was one of their two flagships, the Retribution. That had been a morale boost for OMNI and some LF personnel.

That was also why the three LF ships and its command crews were having a meeting, their seconds overseeing the repairs. Athrun folded his arms across his chest as he stood next to Cagalli, watching Yzak as he brought up a tactical screen from all the information he had gathered in the two years he had been in the Talon. Yzak never struck Athrun as the type to join anything except for ZAFT, which made him realize that he had never really known the fiery white-haired teen. What he did know was that Yzak had changed a lot since the beginning of the war when they both graduated along with Nicol and Dearka at the top of their class for ZAFT.

Apparently, based on what Yzak said, he had joined the LF's Clyne Faction, a secret force of just a few people who were completely loyal to Lacus, and provided her with valuable information that she passed along to Cagalli and Eileen Canaver. Unfortunately, his assignment in the Talon prevented information from being passed and he had been captured after sending a hasty message to them warning them that Panama was next on the Talon's list.

"Their leader's a Coordinator by the name of Sven Anderson," Yzak started, bringing up a striking man's picture on the projection. Athrun faintly recognized the man from somewhere, but he couldn't really place it.

"He looks familiar," Dearka suddenly voiced and Yzak nodded.

"He should. A prominent political figure back when we were all children, he fell out of favor as the radical group when Eileen Canaver and Siegel Clyne brought up their moderate faction to rise in the Supreme Council. He was head of military operations until Patrick Zala, Herman Gould, and my mother Ezalia took over the National Defense Committee.

"As far as I gathered, he only has a few warships under his command, but they're the latest in models, because of his charisma in spreading to those that weren't happy with the outcome of the war to join his side. Ironically, he united a few of the Naturals and Coordinators that joined him, with at least two of his warship commanders being Naturals."

"That's why there were both ZAFT suits and OMNI Strike Daggers there," Captain Ramius murmured from her side of the room.

"Right now, the bulk of their fleet in here, trying to take Panama over. The rest are located at their base, the L4 region, Colony Mendel," Yzak said and Athrun froze slightly at Yzak's words, his hand finding Cagalli's giving it a brief squeeze to keep her fears at bay.

That was where what everything happened in Kira's past…where Rau had revealed to his best friend his origins…where the experimentations went on. It was where Griever had to have been created…and most likely by Sven Anderson. But the question was how? Were the samples at Mendel not totally erased as Kira's mother had said? If not, then they had to go to Mendel and destroy the Talon and the samples once and for all.

"Mendel, but it was abandoned," Andy Bartfield started, confused.

Yzak nodded, "It was, but Anderson found use for it. He found some of the leftover experiments and tried to recreate those experiments again."

"Experiments!" Murrue looked horrified as did some of the people around her, like Miri and Sai.

"Genetic experiments that occurred long ago and was abandoned by some explosion. Anderson was trying to create some kind of controlling agent program that he could use to infiltrate the highest levels of any of the governments, in all of PLANT, Earth, and Orb. That was why he was successful when he launched his first campaigns," Yzak suddenly looked at Cagalli in a solemn stare, "I apologize, Princess, that I wasn't able to warn you of the traitor in your government's midst." He also turned to Lacus, "I also apologize Miss Lacus that I wasn't able to inform Senator Amalfi or you of Amalfi's aide being the spy in the midst."

"None needed, Yzak," Lacus replied and Athrun turned slightly to see Cagalli nod, but she didn't say anything.

"So what about those Gundams?" Andy turned the conversation back to finding out more information.

"They are the Claw, Liberty, and Corsair. Their plans were actually created just before the war was over. Like the five original Gundams the Earth had built in the second year of the war, these were to be completed along with Justice and Freedom to improve on the five that were supposed to be captured."

The realization that his late father had completed three more plans to build more Gundams after Justice and Freedom made Athrun appreciate the fact that Yzak did not mention his name. He also realized that the plans probably had fallen into his father's supporters hands as soon as his father took command of the Genesis Project. But there was still another question he had to ask.

"Are they equipped with N-Jammer Cancellers?" he asked Yzak.

"No. Those plans were created by Senator Amalfi. The man stored his plans in a safe place," Yzak replied and Athrun nodded in relief. That was good news. At least no PLANT or place on Earth was going to blow up soon and have nuclear fallout for the next hundred years.

"So what the hell do we do now?" someone, a senior officer aboard one of the three warships asked.

"Captain Lya Matato is Fleet Commander of the Talon. She won't give up until Panama falls or everyone's dead. It's a good thing to say that there will be another attack soon."

Kira rushed out of the elevator door as soon as it opened. Though he had not been in the lower levels of the former Morganroete building in a long time, he still retained the memory of it and he looked around the darkened observation room where he had worked with Erica Simmons to improve the Astray Mark I models. It was dark…quiet…as if everyone had abandoned the place to go somewhere else.

He skidded to a stop, catching his breath as he looked around. He had gotten past the security checkpoint and parked the car, no one stopping him as he ran in and into the elevators. Where the heck was Erica?

He wanted to ask her if since Athrun rebuilt the Justice, had Freedom also been rebuilt? He didn't know if he wanted to fight, but he wanted to know that much for now. "Erica?" he called out.

There was no answer.

He walked forward a bit. "Erica?" he tried again.

"She's gone, Kira," a new voice that he didn't recognize spoke from the relative darkness and Kira jumped slightly, cursing silently that he didn't have a weapon on him. He turned around warily until someone flicked on the lights to the observation room, making him wince slightly and shield his eyes against the sudden glare. As his eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness, he saw near the observation windows that looked out into a darkened training field, a man with graying hair dressed in an immaculate suit.

"I was supposed to meet you in the sub-levels, but I decided that here is a good place," the man said without turning around, still staring out into the darkened field. There was something in the field, an indistinct shape that Kira couldn't make out.

He took a step forward, his body tense as he sensed that the man couldn't really harm him, but he didn't want to take the chance. Too many coincidences happened too fast, and he didn't want to risk anything else.

"Who are you?" he asked.

The man turned and Kira stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes wide with surprise and shock. A sad, tired smile was on the man's face, but there was no mistaking who he was…

"S-Senator Amalfi," Kira whispered.

"Hello Kira Yamato," Amalfi greeted gently, "we've never met, but I do want to ease a fear that I know that has been gnawing your mind for a long time. I know you killed my son Nicol, during the war-"

Kira flinched; unbidden memories of what he did in the Strike back in the war coming up.

"-but I do not blame you one bit for what has happened," Amalfi continued before walking forward, his hands clasped in front.

"S-Sir…" Kira started, but he couldn't finish whatever he was going to say as he saw the pain in the Senator's eyes. He looked down, tears starting to burn his eyes as he clenched a fist, unable to do anything.

Amalfi's hand on his shoulder made him jerk up to see the middle-aged Senator smiling down at him. "Please, Kira, don't worry. It was war…and my son knew the risks just as well as you did. He was doing what you were doing, protecting his friends just like you did."

"Yes but…"

"Athrun told me what happened and I don't blame you. I never did. My wife never did. All we knew was that the war had to end…that was why I created the N-Jammer Cancellers on your Freedom and Athrun's Justice," Kira looked up to see Amalfi's eyes take on a faraway look, "I was foolish back then. I thought I could end the war with nuclear weapons. A revenge of sorts for those that sent nuclear weapons into Junius 7. I wanted to stop the senseless deaths of so many younger men and women like you who were fighting at such a young age. I didn't want anymore parents to go through what I and my wife did."

"I'm…sorry," Kira looked down, finding a spot on the ground that seemed friendly enough to warrant his attention.

Amalfi squeezed his shoulder once, making him look back up at him, "Sorry for what? You tried to keep the peace. You realized during your battle that war was horrific and ugly and that was why you took Freedom. You wanted peace like I did. Except you used Freedom in the way I couldn't have seen back then. You were the one to do the right thing…not me…"

"But now…with Lacus…the attacks…Cagalli…"

"I was a fool once more. I let myself be goaded into thinking that I was able to keep the peace," Amalfi had a saddened look on his face, "I blamed myself, but Lacus…she told me that I had to stand strong. You, are also able to do that."

The lights to the darkened training ground suddenly came on and Kira stared in shock, Freedom's face staring at a point on the opposite side of the training room. So Athrun did rebuild the Freedom too…

"You help bring peace, but now, the peace has been threatened. Lacus has gone off to fight. Athrun's gone off to fight. Cagalli's gone off to fight…will you do the same?"

Kira hesitated, thinking back to what he had been doing since the war. He didn't want to fight, didn't want to kill again, but then again…had he killed at all when he was in the Freedom? Not at all. He had only disabled the mobile suits he had fought with. Rau Le Creuset was ultimately destroyed by Genesis' firing mechanism… He had never killed anyone in the Freedom…

"But even as a soldier, you don't have to kill…"

"Which is why I'm not…unless it is absolutely necessary."

Kira remembered what Athrun had said when he had left in Justice and realized that he had been moping around for the last few days, his family and friends had been trying to do something to stop this new threat. He had to be strong to help them. He couldn't let the peace that he had worked so hard for be wiped away by this new threat. If it meant that he had to pilot the Freedom Gundam again, then he would do so.

"Thank you Senator Amalfi," he looked up in Amalfi's eyes, a new determination in them.

Minutes later, Kira was suited up in his customary blue-white flight suit, helmet secured in place. His fingers flew over the Freedom's pads, noting with a smile that Athrun had calibrated most of its systems, leaving very little for him to improve on. As he activated the three main screens, he saw in the distance, Senator Amalfi, staring at him, a salute to his head.

Smiling in response, even though he knew Amalfi wouldn't be able to see it, he stepped onto the flyer with enough fuel to get him to Panama and locked his Gundam in place. Activating the comm. system, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Kira Yamato, Freedom, launching!"

The Freedom Gundam launched straight up with help from its vernier packs and flyer booster packs and soared out into the clear blue Orb skies, headed towards Panama where the current battleground was.

Phase Thirteen – Brothers and Sisters in Arms

Cagalli hung her arms over the railing, feeling a prickly sensation as the nerves and blood vessels in her arms were pressed the wrong way – her arms falling asleep on her. She didn't really care, as for some morbid curiosity; she sometimes liked the prickly sensation that came after she let blood flow normally. It gave her something to think about besides watching repair crews work on the ships, rescue crews lift twisted metal and bodies out of the water before depositing them unceremoniously onto a dock.

"You really shouldn't do that. You can get pinched nerves a lot easier," Athrun's voice behind her made her turn her head a little to see him walk up to her, a smile on his face.

"Never proven," she shot back before she lifted her arms up and suddenly the prickly feeling was back in full force. She winced slightly as she felt the "pins and needles" effect race up and down her arms. It felt weird…

"I know that if I tap your arm, you're probably going to hit me afterwards," Athrun teased gently, his fingers barely touching her right arm and she mocked glared at him.

"Try it…" she egged him on before he pulled his hand back and laughed lightly.

Cagalli smiled in return; glad to hear that he was laughing again, after so many days of sadness and pensive worry. She grabbed his hand with her own, lacing her fingers through his. Staring up at him, she saw the love and adoration he had for her in his deep green eyes and decided to surprise him by kissing him deeply and fully on the lips.

They both parted after a few minutes, neither one daring to draw further apart, their noses centimeters away from each other.

"What…was that for," Athrun asked, his voice a bit husky and out of breath.

"For not dying on me, that's why," she replied a bit mischievously, a smile tugging the corners of her mouth.

"I promised I'd protect you, and don't intend on dying," Athrun replied.

"I know," Cagalli nodded, "but that still doesn't mean that I'm not china. I wanted to be with you. I didn't like staying in Orb by myself, knowing that you were fighting the Talon." She suddenly felt Athrun's hand around her before she was pulled closer to him.

"I was angry at first," she leaned her head against his chest to hear the rumble of his voice, "but now…I'm glad that you're here."

Cagalli hmmed an agreement into his jacket, her arms encircling his waist, the pins and needles feeling long gone. She loved how peaceful it was…almost like a calm before the inevitable storm and for more than once since she had started fighting for what she believed in, she wished this moment would last.

"Athrun?"

"Hmm?"

"I don't want this to end…"

"Me neither, Cagalli, me neither."

"I wish somehow, this could last forever…"

Yzak walked the halls of the Babylon, feeling a bit lost. It wasn't that he didn't know his way around the ship; it was the fact that there was nothing he could do now. He had wanted to talk with Dearka, but also wanted to avoid the inevitable questions his good friend would ask him. He still skittered a bit away to avoid the Naturals that were aboard the ship, the prejudices drilled into him at such a young age by his mother and father still sharp and strong.

He knew that such prejudices were to be frowned upon by the others, but he couldn't help it. He had learned a lot more to tolerate the Naturals, but he felt lost without the overwhelming presence of Coordinators he knew that he could trust as brethren.

He gave all of the ships commanders, including those in OMNI, the tactical information he had on the Talon, and now, with no other mission given to him by Lacus, he felt lost. Athrun was somewhere, and even now, he couldn't really talk to the man he had once sworn loyalty to only to break that loyalty. Dearka was probably with his girlfriend and Yzak wanted to avoid her at all costs. It wasn't that he didn't like Miriallia Haw, it was that he still did not feel comfortable in the presence of a Natural or in the concept of a Coordinator-Natural relationship.

He didn't want to bother Lacus as she was probably coordinating efforts in trying to deter the Talon from striking so hard in their next wave…so basically there was nothing to do.

"So how come you didn't tell me that you joined the LF?" Dearka's voice suddenly startled him and he stopped before turning back around to see his friend a few steps down the hall, arms folded across his chest.

Yzak shrugged, "Word would have gotten out. My mother is still embroiled by her own fiasco of the Genesis Program, and I wanted a break from the media."

"That still doesn't explain why you disappeared without a word. I was worried, so was Athrun," Dearka frowned, walking forward before stopping a few steps from him, "we were, no, we are still friends, and friends watch out for each other."

"Are we still friends, Dearka?" Yzak asked, knowing that his comment had to have stung really hard – and Dearka's face showed it.

"What the hell do you mean by that? Of course we're still friends," Dearka shot back, his face showing no emotion, but his voice showing his anger.

"You joined their side, and fight by Naturals and other Coordinators alike. I only joined the LF because I respected Lacus Clyne and what she was trying to do. Though I don't believe in all of her ideas, I still think that peace is a viable opportunity," Yzak replied.

"You think we're different just because you can't accept Naturals as beings with pain like we do. Is that it?" Dearka replied and Yzak raised an eyebrow, "don't you remember what I told you on Mendel? Naturals share the same pain we do. We can co-exist with them-"

"You can," Yzak replied, "I still have a hard time doing it."

"And that's why you disappeared, isn't it? You couldn't see the two evolutions of human beings existing, couldn't you?"

"I see it, but it doesn't mean I can accept it so easily as you do," Yzak replied, startled to find that he was trying to defend himself from the accusations. It was usually he who tried to place blame on someone, not him defending his own actions – a total reversal…

"Then, why didn't you join the Talon?"

"What makes you think I didn't?"

"Yzak…" Dearka drew back sharply, his eyes wide with surprise and shock.

"I considered it…but then when I found out the real plans of what Sven Anderson was going to do to PLANT and the Earth, I had to stop him. I started sending messages out to Lacus Clyne, trying to warn her of this new threat. I had thought Anderson was going to bring about something new and peace for Coordinators, but all he wants is genocidal wars to happen to each other because of his petty sense of revenge." He shook his head, "It was then I realized how fragile the peace was between Earth and PLANT. I realized that peace had to be maintained no matter what. Genesis started that belief, my mother's actions convinced me even further, but Anderson's mass genocidal plan told me I had to act."

"What did he plan to do?"

"He was going to destroy Orb after he killed Princess Cagalli, then pit both ZAFT and OMNI against each other. But since the Princess evaded his assassin, he now is just baiting everyone by sending his fleet against Panama."

"What can he accomplish with just invading Panama?"

"He doesn't have to accomplish anything, Dearka. All he has to do is wear down OMNI and the LF's ships that are here, before he goes after others. He's got spies on the inside and especially in Orb, though they might have been gone by now," Yzak replied.

"Which is why the Babylon is going to Mendel after Panama," a new voice startled the two of them and Yzak turned slightly to see the least likely person he would ever see since he was just a child.

"Ledonil Kisaka, it's been a long time," he greeted in a neutral voice.

"Your ancestor once said that a ghost of the dead cannot sleep if their enemies' spirits are still roaming about. It looks like you've done the same," Kisaka said in a sage voice and Yzak smirked.

"Still the historian as ever, Ledonil," he replied.

"How-" Dearka started before Yzak cut him off.

"My mother, back when I was young, wanted an ancestry search done on our family. She believed that one of my ancestors was the uncrowned prince of a nation that was like Orb in ways, except it was devoted to the ideas of total pacifism and was the basis for the beginnings of Coordinator research. Ledonil had been assigned by Dr. Ulen Hibiki to oversee and gather intelligence to which he did and used, but he had also warned my mother and father that what they were looking up would be dangerous in the future…"

"What does this have to do…"

"Sven Anderson is my mother's cousin and that is where part of his delusions stem from. He believes he can rectify everything by destroying everything that opposed him, including PLANT. He was also privy to the research my parents conducted with Ledonil and it led him on this current path."

"If we survive the next wave of Talon attacks, the Babylon, Archangel, and Eternal will go to high orbit around Earth and meet up with the Kusanagi and decide our attack plan on Colony Mendel," Kisaka explained.

"We'll survive. There's no way I'm dying right now," Dearka said in a confident manner and Yzak nodded. He knew that the next wave would be a lot faster and more decisive than the first one. Captain Matato wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

Each person aboard their respective ships had their own personal moments, whether it was with loved ones or alone every thought was still the same. Survive. Defeat the enemies who want to kill you or have your loved one killed. It was the calm before the storm, and a violent storm was brewing.

For Captain Murrue Ramius, she spent the moments before the storm lying in bed, a rare moment of peace for her, clutching two objects she would cherish for the rest of her life. One was a necklace watch, reminiscent of one she had seen in the old photographs of her ancestors, but this was had been given to her by her first love who died shortly after. The other was the dog tags of Mu LaFlaga. Before the start of the battle to destroy Genesis, he had taken them off and given it to her, telling her that it was probably one of the few things he had cherished for a long time, the rest of his things destroyed aboard the ship he had been assigned to in the 7th Fleet.

She clutched both items, her eyes staring at the ceiling, memories coming up to her unseen eyes, unbidden as tears started to flow down her cheeks. Mu…I wish you were here…

For Captain Andy Bartfield of the Eternal, he was sitting in his own office, sipping a smoothly blended cup of Jamaican coffee, staring at the picture of Aisha. He wished she was still alive…but she had died in his arms… Her guidance was what steadied him, and he knew that if he didn't stop whoever was trying to break this peace, then her sacrifice would be in vain.

For Miriallia Haw, she sat alone in her bed compartment, the curtains drawn around her to give her some peace. Staring at the picture of Tolle, she felt a tear roll down her cheek and wiped it away. She knew by the end of this conflict, she and Dearka would have to have a serious talk…

Sai Argyle, in the bed compartment next to Miri's, was jotting down some notes in a journal he had decided to keep. In the first page of the journal, he kept a few pictures of people, one of Flay, another of all of his friends in a group shot, but most of all, one of Kira, smiling in the days before the war turned his life and their lives upside down. He always kept the Kira picture next to Flay's as he knew that somehow, Flay's spirit was looking down upon Kira with a gentle smile, and perhaps upon him.

Yzak Joule was sitting in the cockpit of the Duel, fiddling with the controls. His family was traditional and if one stepped out of the bounds, then they were considered a traitor and had to be eliminated. He wasn't entirely truthful to Dearka…he had contacted his mother and received her blessings to kill Sven Anderson if he could… Once a traitor, always a traitor…

Dearka Elsman sat in the mess hall aboard the Babylon, lost in deep thought. Yzak's words had disturbed him, and the seriousness of what it meant for Coordinators and Naturals had firmed up his resolve. The LF couldn't falter here…and if people like Sven Anderson existed, then the LF was needed for a long time.

Ledonil Kisaka was overseeing the preparations for battle, checking up on the Strike Rouge personally. He stared up at Strike Rouge, the memories of what happened all those years ago flitting across his mind. If he ever got his hands on Sven Anderson, he would kill him personally…the man was a loose cannon, someone that would be able to leak to the media and destroy whatever peace Cagalli and her twin brother Kira knew. He had a mission that he was assigned with Kanoko Yamato. Preserve the children, save them from being used as pawns.

Meanwhile, in a quiet section of the Babylon, Keiji and Kanoko Yamato were sitting across a table, their hands clasped together in worry. No words were spoken by the two adults who had long seen so many horrors come their way. None were needed as they knew what they had to do. Keiji would always support her, Kanoko knew that, and she would finish what her dearest friend Katherine Hibiki had told her the day they had escaped from Mendel.

No words were also spoken as two people huddled together in silent comfort in one of the compartment quarters aboard the Babylon. Athrun's eyes were open, but they were as hard as ice as he stared into the darkness of the room. His arms were wrapped around Cagalli who had fallen asleep, using his jacket and shoulder as a pillow of sorts. He unconsciously tightened his arms around her as he thought about the previous battle. Griever was the one who had tried to kill Cagalli…he was still there and he knew that during the next battle, he would have to have no hesitation and just kill Griever before anymore harm could come to him or Cagalli.

Throughout all of this, Lacus Clyne stood on the outside deck of the Eternal, singing the song of peace. Though no one could hear her, she sang it to help ease her own fears.

Some fifty miles away, the task force lead by the Brimstone readied its weapons for its second foray into Panama. Captain Lya Matato had a grim smile on her face. "Status report?"

"All ships report combat-readiness ma'am," one of her officers replied.

"Good. Tell the ships to launch their mobile suits. All ships ahead full," she ordered.

The battle for Panama had begun again.

Phase Fourteen – Anna ni Issho Datta no ni

Kira could pick up the distant communication signals given by ships all over the place and found out that while the first battle against Panama had been won by the OMNI and LF forces, it was still heavy with casualties. Panama had asked for reinforcements and it seemed that many of the OMNI forces, judging by the transmissions he intercepted on his way to Panama, were slow to respond. It was absurd in Kira's opinion, but then again, a part of him chided the fact that OMNI had always never been too trustful. If they wanted Panama to fall, then so be it… Even ZAFT was slow to respond, but that was ZAFT, so Kira didn't care.

The only ships that seemed to care for Panama were the LF's ships, which made Kira want to hurry all the more. He had been skirting the upper atmosphere of the Earth in order to shorten his time from Orb to Panama, and while it was considerably shorter, it had also given him time to think.

He had been such a fool these past few days. Even though he knew that the assassin after him was somehow related to Mendel, he still couldn't believe the way he had acted towards his parents, his friends, his sister, Lacus, and most of all to Athrun. He had pushed everyone away from him and wallowed in his own grief.

Well now, he was ready to make amends and to help his friends. If the Talon were serious, as he had heard their transmission too, then he would stop them from hurting his family all together. His friends were fighting for him, and he realized, that though they were fighting for him, he would also have to carry some of their burdens too. Athrun had too long been a soldier and not known peace for a long time. Cagalli grew up in a peaceful world of Orb, but her life was shattered with so many losses. Lacus lost her father to the war because she tried to speak of peace.

He was the lucky one. He had his parents that cared and supported him. He had never known so many personal losses in the war. Yes, Flay had died because he was unable to stop Rau Le Creuset, but she was not family in terms of what he was comparing to. Flay Alster was a girl he had hurt badly during the war. She was someone he had badly hurt and had been badly hurt by her. While Lacus was his soul mate, Flay was his first love.

Kira touched a few buttons to adjust the fuel settings on his transporter before leaning back as comfortably as he could, given the tight space in the Freedom's cockpit. He had gone outside on occasion, but the winds were always too high, and sometimes the altitude was too much for him to handle.

Flay was just an innocent girl with little to no knowledge of the outside world. She only knew of her own prejudices and of what she learned from her father and from her friends. She was the innocent girl who died such a horrible death. That was what made Kira want to protect her and his own friends. They were like her, they knew of the knowledge they had been given, not the whole truth. Even if they learned about his origins, they still did not experience the horrors he had.

He had to protect them from all of that and right now it seemed that the Talon was the one who had sent the assassin to kill Cagalli. He didn't really know, but it seemed logical. Cagalli was an innocent in this new war. She was only trying to speak the words of peace and try to rebuild her country. She and Lacus were the new innocents in this war and Kira was determined to protect them. He knew that Athrun had sworn to protect them all, but even he knew that his best friend couldn't handle everything.

That was now his duty. His return to duty – to protect the ones he loved.

Murrue Ramius gripped the sides of her seat tightly as another explosion rocked the Archangel. "Target 20 degrees, port, Variant missiles, fire!" she ordered in a hard voice and was rewarded when the missiles detonated, taking out a Talon ship.

"Status!" she turned her head slightly to see Miri.

"Decks 45 through 47 are on fire, but containment crews are on the way-"

"Captain! Missiles incoming from starboard, 50 degrees!"

"Dispersing net, fire!"

The flares of the dispersing missiles intercepting the ones fired by the Talon ships was a bright flare and Murrue shielded her eyes slightly from the glare.

"We've reported damage by some of the Astrays, but Murdoch is handling repairs," Miri continued her report in a calm controlled voice.

"Good, what about communications with the Gundams?"

"Buster is hanging back to help deal with strays," Miri reported.

"Sai, what about the OMNI ships?"

"Looks like a few of them were hit, but the commanders are not retreating yet," Sai said from his seat next to Miri's.

"Send them a battle plan. We're going to try to pincher them. Send the same plan to Eternal and Babylon."

"Roger Captain."

"Targeting solution on the three nearest Talon ships. Preparing the Lohengrins," she ordered.

"Solution found," Romero Pal, sitting at his firing station reported.

"Jam the signals, Petty Officer Chandra," she said to her electronic warfare officer who nodded and tweaked a few buttons and knobs on his control station.

"Lohengrins, fire!" she yelled.

The burst of red and white from the Archangel's main cannons tore through the first Talon ships before the Archangel's pilot, Master Chief Petty Officer Arnold Neumann turned the ship to let the Lohengrin cannons fire rake through the other two ships.

"Captain, we're clear. The OMNI ships have sent us a request for an arrowhead maneuver," Miri suddenly reported.

"Good, send them the confirmation," she replied.

"Next missile or beam weaponry contact?" she asked Jackie Tonomura, her specialist in enemy search and detection.

"None at the moment. The three ships that were destroyed were formerly that," he grinned at her before turning back to his station, one of his hands clasped against his headset that he was intently listening to.

"Spearhead formation," she keyed the comm. over to the various OMNI ships that were on her approach and their faces lit up her own personal communication screens. "The Archangel will be point. Atlanta, Icarus' Flight, and Igerian will follow our slipstream to catch them off guard. Use your Lohengrins," she ordered and a babble of protests replied to her order.

"You can't order-"

"This is preposterous…You're an LF not OMNI anymore Captain Ramius!"

Murrue narrowed her eyes and cut the captains off with a glare, "Do you or do you not want to survive? The Talon's got us boxed in and we need to break through their formations! I may not be a ranking officer in OMNI anymore, but if you'll notice, the point will be the hardest hit, so Archangel will be taking majority of the fire power!"

The grumbles of grudging agreement came over before one of the captains gave a quirky smile. "All right Captain Ramius. We'll follow you on this," the captain of the Icarus' Flight replied and Murrue recognized her as one of Halberton's former 8th Fleet who had transferred to Lunar duty with the 7th Fleet before the Archangel had joined Halberton's fleet.

She smiled slightly before turning to Jackie, "Give me a targeting solution on the Talon ships. Send it to the others."

"Aye ma'am," Jackie replied.

"Helm, bring us about," she ordered Arnold before he turned the stick, so that the Archangel was facing the incoming Talon ships.

The OMNI ships flanked them, and Murrue glanced at her FOF (Friend-or-Foe) board to see both the Babylon and Eternal had slid up next to her to form a tight triangle of ships.

"Captain," Andy Bartfield's face appeared, "so what's the plan?"

"Hit them with your main weapons then peel off. The Atlanta, Icarus' Flight, and Igerian will be shooting them with their Lohengrins." Technically, while the ships were not Archangel-class, they did carry their own Lohengrins like the Archangel's, except they were smaller and had less power. But combined together, they were very deadly to any ship in its path.

"Roger that," Bartfield grinned slightly before turning away to bark a few more orders at his crew. Murrue noticed that Lacus was also sitting in the Eternal's other command chair, relaying information while providing other instructions to help Bartfield.

"Captain Kisaka, did you get all of that?" she asked the commander of the Babylon.

"Got it, the Babylon is ready," Kisaka replied.

"Roger," Murrue took a deep breath before she turned behind her, "Sai, all ships in formation?"

"Yes Captain," Sai replied.

"Broadband communication, Miri."

"You're on."

"Fire!" she ordered and as one, all ships, both LF and OMNI, fired their most powerful weapons at the incoming Talon ships before breaking away to let the three ships hiding behind their slipstreams to fire their own weapons.

"Hard to port! Fire Gottfrieds!"

The Archangel rocked hard to port, turning away from the still remaining Talon ships that were caught off guard by such an immense fire power, but explosions still rocked the ship violently as those ships that managed to evade the combined power of the OMNI and LF fire back in retaliation. Murrue was nearly thrown from her seat, only her restraining belt stopped her from being thrown everywhere.

"Incoming beam weaponry and missiles!"

"Fire Variants and dispersing charges!"

The battle continued on.

Athrun twisted in the air, avoiding missiles aimed at him. He turned around and fired his beam rifle, each shot destroying a missile. He dived down and targeted a group of Strike Daggers before firing his gatling cannons, their yellow beams destroying the weapons and heads of the mobile suits, effectively disarming them.

A sudden beep on his front screen alerted him to the Liberty, Claw, and Corsair Gundam headed his way. Tossing his rifle aside, letting it fall into a thicket of palm trees, he drew out his double beamed saber and activated it.

"Athrun," Yzak's voice came over the comm. and Athrun turned slightly to see the Duel flying next to him, its beam saber also activated.

"Roger," he replied, their unspoken plan well rehearsed as both were formerly of the same squad in ZAFT, even though they didn't get along back then.

He wove in and out of the air current Yzak had made, the Duel flying in front of him as they charged at the three incoming mobile suits. "Scatter fire," he called over the comm. as Yzak peppered the mobile suits with bullets. Clouds of smoke and dust rose as the three raised their shields to defend themselves and Athrun dove underneath the cloud before pulling back up on the stick and climbed.

As the cloud cleared, he slashed through their formation, breaking them apart and taking out the Claw and Corsair's rifles. Only the Liberty evaded his attack at the last minute and Athrun spun around, detaching his glider and homed it in on the Liberty.

He then dove and slashed his beam saber at the Corsair. This pilot he didn't know, but he could tell that he or she was good. His glider flew back at him and he paused for a moment to let the sensors attach it back onto his back before peppering the Corsair once more with a hail of bullets from his gatling guns.

"That's not going to work a second time," a deep growling voice filtered from his comm. system and he realized that it was the pilot of the Corsair.

Athrun was violently thrown forward as the Corsair knocked him from behind and he spun slightly, just in time to bring up his beam saber in a parry. He gritted his teeth and pressed against the Corsair's beam saber when he suddenly was sandwiched from behind. He turned slightly to see the Claw pinning him from behind.

"Athrun!" Cagalli's voice came over the comm., echoed moments later by both Dearka and Yzak.

"Shit," Athrun cursed softly to himself as he saw a seed snap in his mind – seed mode. He tried to throw both the Claw and Corsair off of him, but found himself pinned tightly. A low growl emanated from his throat and he tried to reach his other beam saber that was on his right side, but he couldn't move his hands from the beam saber without having to lose his grip and therefore be skewered by the Corsair's beam saber.

He tried to see if Cagalli, Yzak, or Dearka could help him, but a wave of Strike Daggers and Liberty were fending them off from him; leaving him the only one to get himself out. The LF ships were pinned down by new waves of mobile suits and the advancing, almost suicidal Talon warships.

"It's a pity that you've never joined us, Athrun Zala. Your father had his ambitions and we were ready to see it through," the voice of the Corsair's pilot replied and Athrun found that his voice sounded vaguely familiar.

"May I clip his wings now," the annoyed voice of the female pilot of the Claw came through and Athrun narrowed his eyes.

"Get off of me!" he shouted as he tried to wrench his controls to respond to his movements, but the Claw suddenly tsked.

"Uh-uh," the pilot taunted, "sorry, Zala. No offense, but your little girl's going next after you…"

Athrun turned slightly to see the Claw activate a beam saber before driving it down to skewer him from behind. His eyes widened in shock as he saw the beam saber coming down towards him and there was nothing he could do about…

A shadow in the air abruptly obscured the sun, and suddenly, the Claw was flying head over heels, pin-wheeling wildly in the air before crashing into a heavily damaged Talon ship, exploding it. In place of where the Claw was, stood the last thing Athrun had expected to see.

"It's not killing, but protecting those we love and consider family," the voice broke over his comm. system and Athrun could only stare in shock.

The Freedom Gundam had arrived.

Kira fired his beam rifle at the Corsair, making it duck and fly back from its stalemate with the Justice.

"Kira!" Athrun's voice came over the comm. and Kira felt the corner of his lips quirk up in a smile.

"I'm sorry Athrun," he apologized, "for being such an idiot these past few days. I didn't get to listen to what you or Cagalli had to say. But thank you, for telling me what I had to do."

"But Kira-"

"While you carry my burdens, let me carry yours," he said before a slight twinge of pain made him wince. It felt like a knife being slowly stabbed into him and it grew stronger and stronger. Kira wondered where the pain came from and a sudden swoop of déjà vu engulfed him and he realized that it was the same feeling he had during his time in the hospital. It was the same exact feeling when he had thought he had felt someone's eyes on him and when he had tried to stop Cagalli's assassin.

"Kira Yamato!" the pained, but angry voice of his clone-brother suddenly exploded in the comm. system and Kira flew up while shooting down at the Liberty who had abandoned its fight with Cagalli's Strike Rouge and the Duel.

"Kira!" Athrun called over, concerned.

"Deal with the others! He's mine!" Kira knew that Griever was out for blood.

His beam rifle clicked empty and Kira glanced at his power levels, and saw that they weren't too drained. He threw away his beam rifle and pulled out both of his beam sabers and activated them. Diving down, he dive-bombed at the Liberty and both met with a clash of beam sabers.

Kira swiped at the Liberty, flipping underneath him while stabbing him with his other hand, but Griever avoided it and retaliated with his own attack. He defended the blows before lashing out with his leg and smiled grimly as the Liberty was turned head over heels.

"I won't give up! You're dead Kira Yamato!" Griever exploded over the comm.

Kira didn't say anything as he knew from his own experiences that jabbering over the comm. was useless during a battle. He concentrated and easily fell into seed-mode. The data from his scanners told him possible attacks that Griever was going to make and he calculated them before storing them in the back of his mind. The pain that had been gnawing at him receded into the deep crevasses of his mind as he concentrated on the battle at hand.

He threw one of his beam sabers in an arc at the Liberty who ducked before firing its gatling cannons at him. Kira raised his shield up, before charging forward and brought the arm with his shield up in a swipe. The blow from his shield towards the Liberty threw it wide open and he grabbed his beam saber that had been arcing towards him and stabbed at the Liberty.

His beam saber missed the cockpit by the barest of inches and instead was diverted to the side where it gouged a deep cut into the side of the Liberty. Kira drew back and fired his head vulcans, peppering the Liberty with a hail of bullets.

A sudden proximity warning made him spin around and he gasped in surprise as the Liberty appeared behind him. There was no way that a mobile suit could travel that fast, he realized, but just then he was kicked hard in the back and Griever didn't stop there. Kira was thrown painfully forward, his restraints digging into his shoulders and abdominal area as the Liberty rode the kick all the way down. Kira crashed into the water and his screens were filled with the blue-green sea.

The force of the impact made him it his head on some of his controls and he blacked out.

Cagalli fired her beam rifle at the Claw before she deactivated the thrusters that were keeping her afloat in the air and the sudden drop made her stomach a bit queasy, but it caught the Claw off guard and bright yellow beam from the Buster hit the Claw head on.

Activating her thrusters again, she flew towards the Claw and dropped her beam rifle, simultaneously taking out her saber and activated it. Slicing the Claw's arm off, she grinned as the Claw retreated slightly away from her, assessing her in a new light.

"Surrender," Yzak's voice blared on the battle frequency they were all using towards the Claw.

"You traitorous bastard Yzak Joule!" the female pilot of the Claw hissed back, "how dare you tell me to surrender."

Cagalli narrowed her eyes and snorted softly in disgust. The pilot of the Claw sure talked a lot. She could talk the talk, but it looked like she couldn't walk the walk.

"Shut up and drop dead then," Yzak snarled over the comm.

The Claw suddenly seemed to think twice about Yzak's last statement and suddenly turned tail and headed back to where the main ships of the Talon fleet were. It was also then that a giant splash of water made her turn just in time to see both the Liberty and Freedom crash into the ocean.

"Kira!" Cagalli called in anguish over the comm..

Kira blinked open his eyes as he shook his head slightly to alleviate the fogginess that was in his mind. He glanced over at his controls and realized that he had only passed out for a few minutes. Shifting in his seat and grabbed the keyboard and typed in a few commands. Freedom hadn't sustained too much damage, but for underwater combat, it was going to be hard.

His sensors showed no immediate mobile suits or armors around him, and a few of the warships passed by overhead. Grabbing the controls, he pulled the Freedom upright and looked up. His eyes narrowed as he concentrated, trying to use the sense of déjà vu he got with Griever to pin point him. He still didn't know how Griever was able to catch him off guard…it was as if he teleported, but that defied every known quantity of physics and of time and space.

He looked up; the Liberty was off fighting elsewhere, probably in a battle with his friends, so that left him room to set up a plan to take down Griever. He treaded along the bottom of the ocean, knowing that he had a limited amount of oxygen in the water. The carbon dioxide scrubbers fared well in space and in the Earth's atmosphere, but they did not do so well in water. Freedom and most other mobile suits except for ZAFT's ZnO and GUUN amphibious suits were just not built for water combat.

A ship passed overhead and Freedom's sensors identified it as a Talon ship. Kira suddenly got an idea and pushed forward on the throttle, lifting the Freedom towards the ship. He latched onto the bottom as quietly as he could and connected his sensors to that of the ship's. Quickly pulling out his keyboard, he hacked in commands to override whoever was controlling the ship and the ship's sensors appeared on his left side screen.

Looking around with the commandeered Talon ship, he finally saw the Liberty who had joined forces with the Corsair and were both fighting Justice and the Duel. Strike Rouge and Buster were providing cover to the Archangel, Eternal and a ship that his own sensors identified as the Babylon, an Orb manufactured ship like its cousin the Kusanagi.

He directed the Talon ship towards the air battle and fired its cannons at the Corsair and Liberty before turning its cannons around and firing directly at the incoming warship. Kira could only imagine the panic going on with the Talon warships. Well there was always a first for everything and this was his first time trying out something like this. He returned the ship's sensors to the battle and fired another volley at the two mobile suits, scattering them before suddenly his eyes narrowed as he saw the Liberty diving straight down at the ship.

The pain had started to return and the sense of déjà vu he had was growing stronger and stronger. He realized that Griever had caught on to his plan and as the Liberty swiped down at the ship with its beam saber, Kira detached himself from the ships before activating his thrusters and powered his way into the ship and through it.

He burst out into the air just as the Liberty sliced through the ship and the huge explosion buffeted him higher into the air.

"Kira!" Athrun's relieved voice came over.

"Athrun."

As one the two best friends attacked the Liberty with all of their weapons, their minds not used to combat with each other, but with the skill that said otherwise. It was as if they both knew what the other was going to do and in tandem, attacked the Liberty.

The Liberty crashed back into the sinking debris of the warship that Kira had commandeered moments ago before flares of retreat lit up the sky from the Talon ships.

Kira knew that he only had moments before Griever was going to escape again and dove down to strike the finishing blow. He was suddenly slammed aside by the Claw and he gritted his teeth as he fought the g-forces and hovered in the air. He turned to see the Claw picking the Liberty up and flying back towards the retreating Talon ships – their numbers dwindled to only a few ships now.

That was when he felt his breath coming raggedly and to his surprise, his grip on the controls of the Freedom were tight. He forced himself to relax and opened a full comm. channel to Athrun, noticing that he was as tired as he was.

"Athrun," he greeted smiling tiredly.

"Glad to have you here with us, Kira," Athrun replied laughing lightly.

"Tori?" Tori chirped from behind Kira's seat and he turned slightly to see his mechanical bird, silent throughout the whole battle, poke its head out before giving a mechanical flutter of its wings as if to say hi to Athrun.

Kira started laughing at his mechanical bird's antics and noticed that Athrun too was laughing. A sense of peace and relief overcame him as both Freedom and Justice headed back to the LF ships.

Phase Fifteen – Space, Where Dreams Fly

Kira glanced out in the vast emptiness of space, marveling at how small the PLANTs and even the moon looked compared to the wide black expanse, dotted with little stars twinkling in the distance.

"It's been a long time since I've seen the stars like this," the gentle voice of his mother made him turn around to see her and his father floating towards him. They grabbed the rails on the viewport of the Eternal, a bit awkwardly because of the disorientation of space.

All three LF ships had launched to space with the intention to head to Colony Mendel and stop the Talon leader, Sven Anderson once and for all. They had joined up with the Kusanagi in space. The Talon fleet left behind in Panama was so insignificant that OMNI had pushed them to stop the Talon in space and told them to leave the remnant Talon fleet on Earth to them.

Though the initial shock of seeing his parents man the Babylon's battle stations had worn off, Kira still couldn't believe that they were here. He had tried to ask them why, but they had given him vague answers along the lines of stopping the people at Colony Mendel and what not. He had his own suspicions, but he didn't voice it. He had never expected his parents to even know how to operate a control station, and much less, see his father giving firing solution orders and shooting missiles.

He had heard the bit about his father being one of OMNI's top assassins, but surely it wasn't true. He had a feeling that his adoptive father was more than he seemed and perhaps what his mother had been saying was true. No, adoptive was not the right word…now it should just be father. Keiji Yamato was his father. It didn't matter anymore if Ulen Hibiki was his real father; Keiji was the one who raised him along with his wife Kanoko. They were his parents. Not Katherine or Ulen Hibiki.

"How are you faring, Kira?" she placed her hands on his shoulders and he welcomed her presence. It made him feel protected…

"Better," he replied quietly as his father stood next to him, hands clasped behind him, staring out at the stars. "I still can't believe you joined up…"

"It's temporary," his father replied, still staring at the stars before his gaze drifted to the larger specks that was the PLANTs. "Your mother and I just want finish up business in Mendel before I go back to teaching obnoxious teenagers in high school."

Kira noticed that his father had hardened his gaze when he mentioned Mendel and that his mother had flinched slightly. He placed a hand on hers to comfort her. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw her looking down at him, surprised. "We'll finish whatever business we have at Mendel," he emphasized the 'we' part.

His father laughed lightly before clapping him on the shoulder, "You've matured a lot Kira. Your mother and I were worried, but now…you-"

"I'm myself," Kira replied, "I was worried, but Athrun, Lacus, and Cagalli told me otherwise. I realized that I had to do something. I couldn't let Griever control my life."

"That's my boy," Keiji sounded pleased.

There was a soft hissing sound as the door to the viewport opened and all three turned slightly to see Lacus poking her head in before her eyes widened in surprise at interrupting a family moment. "Oh, please excuse me," she was about to duck back out when Kanoko held up a hand.

"Wait, Lacus, please don't go. We were just leaving. I'm sure Kira would like you to stay," she beckoned her forward and Kira was glad that his mother knew what he was thinking.

"We'll see you in the meeting, Kira," his father squeezed his shoulder before taking his mother in his arms and the two of them floated out, leaving Lacus by the door. As the door hissed closed behind them, Kira stared at Lacus and saw her staring back at him.

Since he had last seen her, days ago in Cagalli's mansion, he had missed her terribly. During the launch into space, he had not even gotten a chance to talk with her, but now… He knew that she was part of the fleet, but seeing her in the flesh and not over comm. systems…

"Kira," she launched herself into his arms and he caught her, holding her tightly as he buried his face into her shoulder. Tears of joy leaked out of his eyes as he held her and breathed in her presence. His soul mate, his one true love…his other half that he knew he could never live without.

"Lacus," he whispered her name before he kissed her gently on the cheek and pulled away so that their noses were barely touching each others. "I missed you," he said in a quiet voice.

"I missed you too…but you came, and helped us," she smiled before they drifted a bit apart, still close, but enough so that they were both gripping the railing and occasionally staring out at the stars.

"I came because I had to. Senator Amalfi met me down in Morganroete and told me that while my friends had been fighting to protect me, he made me realize that I was not fighting to kill, but fighting to keep the peace that we've worked so hard to attain," Kira explained and suddenly trailed off as he saw a smile form on Lacus' face. "What's so funny?" he asked.

"I was the one to ask Senator Amalfi to meet you down there," Lacus replied, "I knew that it would shock you, but he was also very reluctant to meet you. I felt that the two of you have something in common. You both wanted peace, yet you both felt so alone. I wanted you and him to realize that you were not alone, you had family, friends, and those nameless faces that want peace."

She suddenly looked abashed and looked down, "Please forgive me Kira…I'm sorry if you were angry…"

Kira opened his mouth, but then closed it. He mulled over what Lacus had said for a few seconds before he tilted her chin up from the floor with his hand, making her stare into his eyes while he stared into hers. "Lacus, none of this was your fault…" he whispered before leaning in and gently kissing her on the lips.

It only lasted for a few seconds, but in those seconds, Kira could feel his soul bond with hers. They were soul mates, one in the same…and both could feel the love and adoration for each other. He reluctantly parted with her after a few seconds, but the lingering effect of the kiss was still there.

"We should get to the meeting," Lacus said after a few minutes of silence and of staring at each other.

"Then let's go," Kira replied before placing an arm around her waist and leading her to the door. The two exited the viewport room, and headed towards the meeting.

Athrun squeezed Cagalli's hand in reassurance as Kisaka brought up a full holographic map of the Earth Sphere. He glanced over to see Kira and Lacus slip in, just as Kisaka started speaking. He wondered where they had been, but decided to ignore it as Kira probably spent some time alone with Lacus – which was much needed, he knew.

"As Yzak had told us, a majority of the Talon's fleet was sent to Panama, leaving only a handful of skeletal ships to defend Mendel. Though there are no indications of super weapons like Genesis or Cyclops system in Mendel, we still need to be wary of traps. All other LF ships have been occupied in their own assignments to watch and guard for possible resurgence or retaliation of Talon sect forces in PLANT and various bases of the Earth due to the Talon fleet's defeat in Panama.

"The four ships, Eternal, Babylon, Kusanagi, and Archangel will be the only ships, in LF, OMNI, and ZAFT to be headed towards Mendel. If we do not stop Sven Anderson's plans, then there will be no others to pick up after us," Kisaka pitted them with a hard stare.

"There will be two infiltration teams of four. I will be leading one, and Ledonil here will be leading the other one," Quinn Misali casually stepped up, touching a few buttons on the holographic projection to show a map of Mendel, which was by far a very small installation. "The first team will be in charge of subduing any resistance we encounter while the second team is to neutralize Anderson and any data that seems too dangerous to fall into the wrong hands.

"The infiltration is the hardest part and there might be a chance that those that go will not return. Mendel, as you know, was known for its experimentation. We don't know what kinds of humans or even creatures we might be encountering in there," Misali said in a flat voice and Athrun glanced over to see Kira freeze up slightly at the mention of 'experimentation' and 'creatures', but Lacus placed a hand on his forearm to calm him down and he relaxed.

Athrun figured Misali didn't know any better as he only had the barest of information, but he wondered what was the general public's opinion on the events of Mendel. He would have to ask someone later…

"They're not creatures," Cagalli hissed beside him and he looked at her, rubbing his fingers over hers to try to calm her down.

"He doesn't know…only a few know," he whispered back before paying more attention to what Misali and Kisaka were saying.

"I'll need four more volunteers for both teams. Kanoko Yamato and Brian DaCosta have volunteered their services for each team," Misali said and Athrun looked over to Mrs. Yamato, shocked to see that she had volunteered. He would have never expected someone with her gentle disposition to even be holding a gun, much less volunteering for what looked like a suicide mission.

"I'll volunteer," her husband next to her suddenly spoke up and Athrun blinked, but he didn't get a chance to voice his surprise as Misali did it for him.

"Keiji! What in the blazes are you doing here!" Misali looked truly shocked.

"Nice to see you too Kingfisher," Keiji Yamato replied in a slightly sarcastic voice.

The room suddenly burst into murmurs before a few more calls of volunteering echoed, trying to be heard over each other. Athrun knew that he should but just as he was raising his hand up, Kira's voice spoke loudly over the crowded room.

"I'll volunteer," he said and Athrun stared in shock as Cagalli grabbed his sleeve to keep herself from falling over in shock. Did he hear what Kira just said?

Apparently the whole room also heard and went silent, all eyes on Kira who seemed unperturbed by so many eyes on him at once.

"I'll join Captain Misali's infiltration team. During the war two years ago, Mu and I were able to enter into Mendel and see its wreckage. I know the way to its buried secrets and can show you it," Kira said and Athrun frowned, hoping that his best friend knew what he was doing…

"I don't think-"

"No," Keiji suddenly stepped in front of his son, "he's not volunteering."

"Dad-"

"No. You and I will talk about this later," Keiji glanced back at his son, his face impassive.

"He's right," Murrue suddenly spoke up, "you're too valuable as the pilot of the Freedom. If there are more mobile suits there, you and the others will have to defend the ships."

Athrun saw that Kira looked a bit disappointed and angry, but kept his emotions in check as Ledonil continued the briefing. He knew that he would talk with his friend later.

"Sunne and Ivanov will join my team while Nemati and Chan will be joining Captain Misali's," Kisaka said before switching the projection to a broader scope, "there will be a separate meeting for the teams later on, but for the moment, the data given to us shows that the possible entry points will be here, here, and here. The Kusanagi, since it has the lowest of firepower capabilities, will run interference for the infiltration teams while the Archangel, Babylon, and Eternal will be keeping any Talon ships there at bay."

"Everyone all set?"

There were murmurs of agreement and Misali clapped his hands together, "All right then. We'll be at Mendel in about twelve hours. Until then, we'll do three four-hour shifts. May the Fates smile down on us."

It was a few hours later that Athrun found himself on board the Eternal's mess hall. It was once again the only ship capable of carrying both the Justice and Freedom without cramping any space. But he wasn't the only one in the mess hall. Sai, Dearka, Miri, and Yzak had also joined him, Cagalli, Lacus, and Kira. Athrun noticed that there seemed to be a distanced feeling between Miri and Dearka and wondered why, but shoved the thought away as Yzak thunked his mug angrily down on to the table.

"I should have been on that team," he said in a quiet but angry voice, "it was my family's duty to eliminate Anderson."

"You're better needed piloting Duel. I mean who knows what we might encounter out there. You've seen what the pilots of Claw, Corsair, and Liberty could do," Athrun explained calmly, rolling his mug in his hands before taking a sip of the coffee inside.

"So?" Yzak glared at him, "it should have been me!"

"Yzak-"

"Shut up Athrun. It's different from your family's views. My mother expects me to kill Anderson!"

"So when have you stopped listening to your mother and think for yourself?" Athrun narrowed his eyes, peeved at his friend.

"I think for myself-"

"At this rate, no," Athrun interrupted him glaring at the stubborn white-haired pilot.

"What the hell do you know?"

"You are just as stubborn as you were all those years ago!"

"I've changed!"

"Yeah right-"

"SHUT UP!" Kira's roar made both of them stare at him, their words hanging as they slowly sat down.

"I'm sick of hearing everyone fight," Kira was still staring at his mug, but Athrun noticed that his best friend's hands were holding his mug tightly, a slight tremor in its contents. He heard a slight creak from the mug and realized that Kira was to the point where he would crack the mug with his bare hands if he had to.

"What the hell would a Natural know," Yzak said in a derisive tone, still angry and Athrun's anger flared once more.

"Leave Kira alone-"

"Please, Athrun, let it go," Kira's voice, now cold, made him stop and he stared at his best friend, barely noticing the shocked and tense expression on everyone else's face. Even Lacus was hesitating to say something to Kira to try to soothe his anger.

"For starters, I am a Coordinator like you," Kira said, pitting Yzak with a frosty look, "second, whatever prejudices you hold against Coordinators or Naturals, leave them. The people you'll be fighting are Coordinators and Naturals with Coordinator-like abilities."

"I know that," Yzak snapped, "I was the spy within."

"Then you should also know that a fair amount aren't human," Kira replied in the same frosty tone.

"Nikolai Mercus sure as hell isn't," Yzak muttered.

"Who?" Dearka asked, confused.

"Griever," Kira replied and Athrun wondered how he knew, but left it at that as he realized what Yzak had said.

"Not human?"

Yzak nodded, "Genetically enhanced, he looks almost like you," he pointed a thumb at Kira, "except for a wicked scar down his left side."

Dearka, Miri, and Sai gasped at the revelation, but Athrun already knew about it and just nodded. "He was the assassin sent to kill Cagalli, but he was very fast," Athrun said before putting an arm around Cagalli's waist and hugging her closer to give her some reassurance.

"The Claw was piloted by Amai Asterli. She's one psycho bitch," Yzak downed the contents of his mug, "Asterli joined before I came aboard, but she was altered by some implants to bring out her more aggressive emotions."

"That's why she was yelling all over the place," Dearka murmured.

"Who was in the Corsair then?" Sai asked, ignoring Yzak's flinch of being asked by a Natural.

"He was a recent candidate from Orb," Athrun stared, surprised and noticed that Cagalli and Kira also had shocked expressions on their faces. "They took him aside days prior to the bombing, and altered him. I think his name was Taylor Ren."

The sound of a mug shattering made everyone stare at Kira who was shaking, his eyes wide with fright, the remnants of his mug and contents forming liquid bubbles that started to float everywhere. Athrun reached out a hand to try to calm him down, but to no avail.

"Taylor?"

"Know him?" Yzak asked.

"He was in the Senate Hall…he was there when the bombs exploded…he was injured…he…couldn't have been the pilot of Corsair," Kira looked scared and betrayed before Lacus took him into her arms and let his head rest on her shoulder. She rubbed his arms to soothe him.

"Wait, that means he was the one who bombed the Hall," Cagalli put two and two together.

"No, it was Nikolai," Lacus suddenly spoke up, making Athrun turn to see her staring at everyone, "I had talked with Senator Amalfi and he said that his aide was named Nikolai Mercus. Nikolai hit him on the back of his head to knock him out before setting off the bombs to frame him."

"Then we should capture him and set him in front of a tribunal to clear Senator Amalfi's name," Miri suggested.

"No," Kira interrupted in a quiet voice, "we should kill him."

"Kira?" Sai and Miri looked shocked and Athrun stared at his best friend.

"Kira are you sure-"

"Griever is one of them, Athrun," his best friend replied, "you know as well as I do that they shouldn't live."

Kira suddenly got up and headed towards the door to the halls. Lacus hurried after him and just as the two got to the door Yzak impulsively spoke up.

"Wait, you're telling me that we should kill the only chance to let Senator Amalfi's name be cleared! You've killed Nicol and now you're going to keep tarnishing the Amalfi name!"

Athrun glared at Yzak for bringing up the subject of Nicol's death but the white-haired pilot ignored him. He turned his head and stared at Kira, noticing how stiff his friend was.

"Yes I killed Nicol," Kira started so softly that he barely heard him, "but I will not let Senator Amalfi's name be tarnished further. Griever is more of menace than the deaths of a person or of their name would ever be." With that he stepped out, the door hissing close behind him.

Phase Sixteen - Colony Mendel

The remnants of Colony Mendel could be seen with the naked eye. So far there were no warnings of approaching ships or of weaponry being fired at them, but Kira knew that it was only a matter of time before those alarms went off. He finished stepping inside of his skin-tight flight suit; its familiar blue-white colors a welcoming sight. Zipping it up tightly left the top open to buckle up later and checked his helmet.

"You okay?" Athrun asked, stepping away from his own locker aboard the Eternal and zipping up his orange-white flight suit.

"I'm fine," Kira replied smiling gratefully as he knew that Athrun was asking about what had happened a few hours ago in the mess hall. "It took a while, but Yzak's right in a way. If we do capture Griever, he can clear Senator Amalfi's name."

"Yeah, but you said so yourself. He's one of the twisted experiments and I don't think we'd be able to capture him. It's kill him or he kills us," Athrun said, checking his helmet before fiddling with a few pads inside.

"I know," Kira sighed, "it's just that…" He trailed off, slipping his helmet on before adjusting it to encircle his flightsuit's neckline. It wouldn't be too good if there was a leak in the suit and the Freedom Gundam suddenly depressurized.

"Did you talk to your parents?" Athrun changed the subject and Kira was glad that his best friend could always pick up on his moods so easily.

"Yeah," he zipped up the rest of his flightsuit and secured the neckline to his helmet, "I don't like it, but they know what they're doing."

"I never would have expected to see your mother or father holding a gun. They were so nice back on the Lunar base," Athrun joked lightly and Kira grinned, knowing that he was trying to get his mind off of the upcoming battle.

"Never would have expected to see it too. Guess parents aren't what they seem at times," he replied before giving a final once-over to himself making sure he didn't miss anything before looking up at Athrun, "you ready?"

"As I'll ever be," Athrun replied before the two of them headed out of the locker rooms and towards their Gundams.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Kanoko asked her husband while he polished the pieces of an assault rifle with delicate care. She had not seen him touch a gun since he had married her, and now, the sight of him getting ready to go back to his old life, even if it was just for one mission, was unnerving her. She herself only carried a handgun as she didn't want anything to do with weaponry. It was forced upon her by Ledonil who had told her that they were the only two people who knew what files had to be eliminated and if they were killed, and then no one would know what to do.

"I'm sure, Kanoko," Keiji replied evenly, blowing the alcohol to dry before assembling his rifle with uncanny precision and speed. He sighted along the barrel to make sure everything was straight before slapping a full clip into it. "Ghosts like Anderson shouldn't even be allowed to wander. Our son should be left alone, not brought back so violently to his past."

"But Keiji…I…don't like the idea of you-"

"Kano," it was his nickname for her, "I saw your pain when you heard about our son joining the Earth Alliance forces in their fight against the PLANTs, I saw it again when you found out that he nearly died in his battles, only coming back out scarred. That pain was shown once more when you found out about Sven Anderson and the Talon. I don't want to see that pain again."

"Still, I don't want you to die," Kanoko whispered, suddenly afraid.

Keiji placed the rifle down on the bench he had been sitting on to clean it before clasping his wife's hands in his own, making her look at him, "I won't die out there, nor will you. We'll both come back safe and sound and with Kira too. He's our child, my son, your son. Katherine Hibiki was his birth mother, but he is our son. Nothing can take that away from us. We'll put the past behind us and make sure nothing like this ever happens again.

"All those years ago, I swore to protect you and protect Kira. Nothing's changed. I didn't die then when they sent the second team over and I won't now," he continued and Kanoko by then was in tears. Keiji stopped for a moment before he hugged her tightly before whispering into her ears, "I love you Kano."

"I love you too, Kei," he heard her muffled reply as the two shared a brief moment of peace before the second phase of the storm was about to strike.

Preparations were almost completed when the first warning alarms burst through each of the four LF ships' corridors. The alarms were then replaced by their respective captains signaling all hands to battle stations. Already the Gundam pilots were in their mobile suits and the Astray pilots were ready to head out and meet the opposing force. Both infiltration teams had already shuttled over to the Kusanagi who, under the command of Quinn Misali's second, was ready to execute its mission.

The first round of beam weaponry was fired and the mobile suits were sent out.

Kira looked over the targeting data his Freedom picked up and fell into seed-mode. He lined up the targets with deadly precision and fired his beam weapons, washing the area in a light of red, yellow, and green.

There weren't too many ships, but he knew that he had to get rid of them before the Kusanagi could approach. Speeding forward, he throttled the controls and fired his beam rifle. Three short bursts caught three JINNs, exploding them on sight. He knew that he usually didn't kill, but he also knew that while Anderson may have known about Mendel, it was the probable fact that his underlings knew what Mendel was capable of.

He had to kill them, there was no other choice, a part of him said, as he dropped his beam rifle and activated one of his sabers. Diving towards a cluster of mobile suits, he slashed at two of them, decapitating them in the waist. They promptly exploded and he turned around raising his shield to block a few bullets coming his way.

A few of the mobile suits started towards him to challenge him and he dispatched them with ease. He noticed that Athrun and the others weren't having too hard of a time dealing with the other suits and signaled to the Kusanagi. "Passage clear, start your mission," he said before clicking off the comlink.

Turning slightly he stared at the floating remnants of Mendel. It still looked the same…and he wondered if Anderson changed the inside of the colony to suit his purposes. Suddenly a squad of Strike Daggers firing their rifles at him alerted him back to the battle at hand and he thrusted forward to meet them.

He slashed at a Dagger, cutting it in half before turning around and brought his other beam saber out, cutting two daggers across the head before he turned slightly and stabbed them each in their cockpits. They floated a bit away before exploding in spectacular fashion.

"Kira," Athrun's voice came over, "the Babylon's reporting that there seems to be a cluster of warships on the far side of the Colony. Dearka and Yzak have gone to check it out."

"Roger that," Kira replied, "is the Babylon-" He froze mid-sentence as he felt a sudden swoop in his stomach followed by a forming pain in his head. The swooping feeling dissipated as he started to feel the sense of déjà vu. But that wasn't possible…he was back in Panama, on Earth. There was no way…the LF fleet would have detected him…

"Kira?" Athrun's voice came over, concerned.

"He's here," Kira could not deny the sense that told him who it was.

"Who?" Cagalli asked, confused.

"Griever," Kira replied, the word tasted like sawdust in his mouth as the pain increased.

"That's not possible-"

He suddenly shot upwards as a huge burst of yellow beam weaponry tore through where he was, before the outline of a ship appeared on his sensors – indicating that it was the Brimstone, the capital ship of the Talon. He narrowed his eyes as he saw three mobile suits fly from the hanger bays of the Brimstone. They were identified as the Claw, Corsair, and Liberty.

"Weren't expecting us?" Griever's voice came over the battle comm. system and Kira dropped his shield, giving his left arm free range of motion with his two beam sabers.

"You not supposed to exist," he growled as he charged the Liberty, beam sabers raised

The two clashed head on.

The soldier inside of him knew that it wasn't possible for the Brimstone or its mobile suits to show up. But the human side of Athrun speculated that whatever had gone on in Mendel, it had something to do with the sudden and abrupt appearance of the warship. Nonetheless, the appearance of a new ally for the Talon forces had revitalized their fighting spirit and now were on attack patterns that were almost suicidal.

Athrun drew out his double beam saber and activated it, discarding his almost depleted beam rifle for it. He noticed that Kira had taken on the Liberty for a one-on-one and knew that somehow, Kira and Griever were connected, if not by appearance, but by something higher. That left the Claw and Corsair.

"Cagalli," he keyed the comm. to warn her.

"You take Claw, I'll handle Corsair," she replied and charged off, firing at the Corsair who dodged and ducked.

It was times like this that almost made Athrun wish he had rebuilt the Meteor systems for both the Justice and Freedom, but he quashed the idea as he knew that both were too powerful to ever exist again.

"I'll take you down and raise your head as my trophy!" the pilot of the Claw yelled over the comm. and Athrun grimly didn't say anything as he clashed with the mobile suit.

He swung upwards before slashing across, but the Claw evaded all of his blows and he gritted his teeth, frustrated. He parried her furious blows but suddenly she lashed out with her foot and Athrun fell back. He recovered just in time to block a blow aimed at his head. His beam saber was forced back to his head and Athrun pressed hard, trying not to let the Claw overpower him.

Activating his flyer, he let it out and it zoomed away from him before arcing back and racing towards the unprotected back of the Claw. To his surprise, the Claw suddenly stuck a hand out and caught his flyer before tossing it away.

"You're dead," the pilot of the Claw growled over the comm. and he noticed something akin to tension in her voice. He remembered what Yzak had said about the pilots of the Claw and Corsair, they were manipulated to fight, they weren't doing this on their own…which meant that if he killed her, then it would be on his guilty conscience for killing someone who was technically innocent.

"You can't kill me, you have to fight it!" he activated the comm. and spoke with her.

"What?" the female pilot replied, confused, "I will kill you!"

"Fight it!" he urged her.

"Fight you, of course Justice Gundam pilot Athrun Zala! I am fighting you to kill you!" she replied but her words were jumbled a bit and Athrun knew that he was getting to her.

"You aren't what you are. You don't want to kill anyone."

"You're bullshitting me, Zala," the pilot sneered, "why don't you just dig your grave and die." She pressed harder with her beam saber, forcing his closer to his cockpit.

"You were just a young girl who got caught up in this whole mess-"

"Because of you! You and your father's stupid ideals! Your father betrayed my family!"

Athrun started…this was new… He pushed more power into his thrusters to try to heave the Claw off of him, but to no avail. "How?" he asked, forcing the words out of his mouth as used all of his strength to keep the powerful Claw at bay.

"Your father used Genesis to wipe out my brother and father with no care in the world. You left my mother and I abandoned! Out of her grief, she killed herself, leaving me alone to fend!"

"It's not my fault!" he replied, trying to convince her.

"It is so yours! You left them! You could have saved them by stopping your father! You abandoned them to die like the dogs they were!"

"Your family was lost like mine!"

"My family was my home! That's something you wouldn't understand!" she screamed.

Athrun flinched at her words, costing him a few precious centimeters and his beam and hers slipped closer to his cockpit. He could feel the heat in his cockpit rise a few degrees as a result but ignored it. "I understand, Amai," he said in a quiet but firm voice, "my mother was killed on Junius 7. My father died of his own madness…"

"Then you should know that you should die!"

"I probably should," Athrun agreed, "but that doesn't mean you should kill your own soul to do so. You're a gentle person, Amai Asterli. You shouldn't carry such burdens as you do. Let others take them and help you along."

To his surprise, the Claw suddenly stopped its attack and backed away. Athrun breathed a quick sigh of relief before lowering his saber to a defensive position. He knew that even though his words might have gotten to Amai Asterli, she was still an enemy at the moment and people who liked to live didn't let their guard down so easily.

"W-What…a-am I doing…" gone was the screaming voice, and in place was a high-pitched one, very confused and very fearful.

"Amai?"

"W-Who are you?" she sounded terrified.

"I'm a friend, here to help you," Athrun dared not reach out a hand in case it was a ploy.

"W-Where a-am I?" she stuttered.

"You've been asleep for a long time, Amai. You've only recently awakened, but everyone here is your friend here to help you…"

"Help me?" she asked.

"Yes. I'm Athrun Zala-"

A strangled cry that sounded half like a keening of an animal and half like a human's scream reverberated through the comm. system. It sounded so painful and so terrified that it made Athrun wince. "Amai! Amai!"

"YOU WILL DIE!" the screaming voice was back and the Claw charged him, swinging her beam saber wildly.

It happened too fast, but Athrun regretted every moment of it. The Claw had charged him and the soldier part of him found its weakness when she raised her arms high to strike an overhead blow. His beam saber tore through her middle, where the cockpit was and cut the Claw in half. The Justice floated away a bit as the two separate halves of the Claw sparkled a bit before exploding.

Amai Asterli, the pilot of the Claw was dead.

"Wolf will take point while Desert and Tempest covers him," Kingfisher ordered directing his five-man team. He had opted to take on another member because of the advantages of five people. "Akuma, you're with me."

"Roger that," came the four replies of his teammates and Quinn Misali, known to a majority of the Earth Alliance and ZAFT as Kingfisher grinned. He glanced at his former partner back when they were both in the Black Ops of OMNI, Keiji Yamato – still codenamed Akuma – who was wearing the regular attire of infiltration. Age didn't seem to dim his good friend's ability to blend in with the shadows, but he still didn't know how good was his accuracy.

Yu-Ling Chan, or Wolf, was the only female on the team, but she was one of the best that Kingfisher knew. She excelled in sniping and was a good grenadier. Tarrant Nemati, Tempest, whose file he had come across had said that he was a Coordinator and like most Coordinators was an excellent marksman and all around skilled at infiltration. He was hesitant at first to put him on the team, but got past his own prejudices to include him. Michael DaCosta, Desert, was Andy Bartfield's second, but Andy had recommended him as a good reconnaissance person to go for the mission.

"Clear," was the reply from Wolf and Kingfisher exited out of the shuttle, Akuma tailing after him. He moved away and gave an all clear sign to the pilot who nodded and began to back out of the hanger bay. Turning his gaze to the dusty bowls of Mendel, he shielded his eyes from the wind that was blowing up a lot of brown dust and raised his hand, signaling for Desert and Tempest to move forward.

"Find a spot, Wolf," he ordered her and she nodded before scurrying to find a viable sniping spot in case they encountered any resistance.

"Clear," came the comm. check over his ear peace, and Kingfisher signaled Akuma to move ahead.

The first team slowly made their way into the depths of Colony Mendel. But as they did so, they did not see a person following them. The shuttle pilot had not gone back as ordered, but instead landed in a different area and followed them from a distance. On one of the pilot's wrist dangled a gold charm bracelet, on the other, a silver charm bracelet.

Phase Seventeen – Infiltration

Kanoko slid up against the wall, her handgun out and her finger barely pressing the trigger. She never liked guns, but she knew that she would have to use one in here. They were all wearing Kevlar armor in case anyone did get shot, so there was some protection. She didn't know how her husband was doing, but she hoped that he was fine.

She saw Ledonil peek around a corner before signaling to her and the two other people of their team. They moved ahead of her and she followed them, she did not know anything about infiltration, but she knew that she wouldn't be a hindrance to Ledonil and the rest of her team.

Kingfisher's team had entered through the most viable way that was heavily covered in security to draw off the guards while Ledonil's team took the back route that was only known to few of the personnel that was originally part of Dr. Hibiki's team. She and Ledonil had banked on the fact that their former colleague, Sven Anderson, had not known about this hall, and their hunch was correct.

There weren't any guards here and it seemed that no security cameras were in place. As soon as Sven came out as the leader of the Talon, she had felt her heart skip a few beats. She had thought that Anderson had died along with the rest of the Mendel crew when the explosions went off, but it seemed that he survived. If Anderson survived, she wondered if any of her former colleagues had also survived. She dared hope not, as tracking them down and possibly eliminating them would be a horrendous task. Perhaps a few of them retired into their peaceful lives, having nothing to do with the current political arena, but she knew that there were a few of her colleagues who would take advantage of what they knew if they found out that Kira, the only sole survivor of Hibiki's experiments was alive and well.

She had considered changing her son's name once or twice, but always kept it as a tribute to his birth mother's last wishes. Only the last name of Yamato was added as "Kira Hibiki" would sound too conspicuous to anyone, especially those in ZAFT.

Ledonil and Kingfisher had assured her that the men and women they had chosen were the best in keeping secrets, especially pertaining to Black Ops missions, such as this one. She wasn't too sure, especially since finding out that Kingfisher had once been with her husband's unit when he had been in OMNI's Black/Special Ops, but Keiji had personally reassured her of Quinn Misali's loyalty to whatever task was at hand. The less people knew about what happened in Mendel, the better off Kira would be. She never wanted her son to be a pawn between Naturals and Coordinators.

Ledonil's touch, though light, startled her from her thoughts and she colored red slightly, dipping her head in an apology to her friend for not paying more attention to their surroundings, but he shook his head and motioned to her a room they had come upon.

She pointed at the closed door and he nodded. Wordlessly going over, Andrea Sunne and Olivier Ivanov flanking her like bodyguards, she noticed that the control pad to enter the room was still working and narrowed her eyes, trying to remember her passcodes. It had been so long since she used them…and she had never thought she'd used them again. After a few seconds, she turned to Ledonil and mouthed to him, "I don't know!"

"Scientist? Opportunity? Childhood? Doctorate? College? Medical school? Research? Peace?" He started whispering and Kanoko picked up on the fact that he was trying to help her remember by naming not-so random phrases that might trigger her to remember her passcode.

"Birth year?"

"Shh!" she hissed at him, as she suddenly remembered part of the passcode. Though the pad allowed alphanumeric coding, it was close to it. She concentrated for a second before she suddenly typed in the code and the door hissed open. Both Sunne and Ivanov suddenly pointed their assault rifles in at the darkened room, their faces impassive at the sudden opening of the door. Their flashlights on top of the rifles strobed the room before Ivanov nodded an all-clear.

"Here, take this," Ledonil handed her a glowlight and she cracked it open before she held it up in front of her, stepping into the room.

Dusty old panels and squeaky swivel chairs, bolted to the ground as Mendel was floating in a near zero-g, the generators all but lost, utterly destroyed as that was the first thing she, Ledonil, Uzumi, and Katherine had thought to get rid of, greeted them. She pushed aside a few clipboards that had been floating around for the past eighteen years, heavy dust already coating them, and caught herself before she was about to sneeze.

"Here you go ma'am," Andrea Sunne handed her a surgical mask to which she tied on. She didn't like wearing the space helmet that they were all wearing and instead it had been hanging on her spacesuit's belt.

"Thanks," she said before putting on the mask and going over to a dusty control panel. It was the only one in the fairly small room and she touched a few buttons, the panel instantly springing to life. Immediately a battery check signaled and she was relieved to find that it had still half of its power left.

The room had been designed separate from the Colony's main control room, with separate power sources and its own connections to the rest of the Colony. Not even the main control room would be able to detect the small auxiliary control room, but this room was able to monitor everything. It had been designed in case an experiment had gone wrong that forced the evacuation of the main control room.

"No contacts, Commander Kisaka," Ivanov reported from his position in the hall across from the door.

"Good," Kisaka replied before sitting in the chair next to hers and looked at her, "what now, Doctor?"

"The systems should be online," she murmured mostly to herself as her fingers flew over the controls, activating most of the monitors, bathing the room in a bluish glow. It wasn't Coordinator ability, it was her own natural ability as a scientist who knew what she was doing to bring everything back online. "Security cameras are over there," she pointed at a fairly large monitor to her right and Kisaka went over there, sitting himself down again before tapping a few buttons.

"Ma'am?" Sunne asked from behind, and out of the corner of her eye she noticed that she had taken an interest to what she was doing.

"I'm checking the files and manually erasing the back-ups. We don't need to alert Anderson before I delete the main files," Kanoko replied, the feeling of talking while working coming back to her.

"You sound disappointed," Sunne observed and Kanoko nodded curtly.

"Yes. The main files have to be erased from the main control room. Most likely Anderson has monopolized himself in there. Hopefully the other team will be successful and subdue him before we get there."

"Oh," Sunne replied before backing away to let her work. Kanoko smiled slightly; in ways Andrea Sunne reminded her of herself – dedication to work, ability to keep secrets, and a curiosity that couldn't be left alone, except Sunne knew when to back-off; she didn't.

Kanoko continued with her work.

The weight of an assault rifle in his hands was both a comfort and a dread to Keiji. He relished the idea of protecting his wife and son once more, but abhorred the fact that he had to take up arms again. He had resigned his commission in OMNI a long time ago, so taking up arms now was just… He shook his head, knowing that such distracting thoughts were not good during a mission.

He had hoped not to see his son bearing any kind of arms, but during the war with ZAFT two years ago, that hope had been dashed as Uzumi had contacted him and Kanoko with news that his son had joined OMNI and was the pilot of the Strike Gundam. When word reached him that Kira had been listed as MIA during a part of the war, before the Archangel got to Alaska's JOSH-A base, he had been both devastated and relieved at the same time.

Relieved because he knew the higher-ups of OMNI would have probably recognized his son's last name and connected both of them together. His son would have probably been re-assigned to Special Ops to follow in his father's footsteps and that was something that Keiji did not want Kira to do.

"Just like old times, eh Akuma?" Kingfisher suddenly whispered over the headset and Keiji glanced behind him to quirk up a smile.

"Old times," he replied before a double click of Desert's comm. signaled them that he had finished scouting out the place and that it was all clear for now. He and Kingfisher moved forward like silent predators, his training flowing back through his mind and body like liquid ice.

They silently moved, pointing their rifles and flashlights everywhere. He held up his hand in a fist occasionally to stop the team as he listened for any signs of patrols, but when there was none, he fanned out and continued moving forward. Wolf had already left them, the Asian woman finding her own way to the control room via sniping anyone that got in her way. She probably found a good niche to hide and snipe people by now, Keiji realized, and he was glad. It meant that someone was always watching their backs.

Once or twice he thought someone was watching them, but every time he looked back there was no one. He thought he had heard a tinkling sound, almost like little metal hitting each other, but it had faded away almost as quickly. He had a bad feeling that was gnawing him, but decided to ignore it for now. What was the use of a bad feeling if you couldn't pin point anything.

"Patrol," Tempest suddenly whispered and they all halted eyes wary, watching for shadows in the dimly lit halls.

A sudden loud crack filled the air, the recoil of a sniper shot being fired, made him flinch a bit but the hall in front of them was filled with sudden screams and Keiji could pick out six different distinct voices. Another crack of the sniper rifle sounded and there were only five left with bullets flying everywhere. Keiji ran forward, his rifle in one hand while his other was grabbing a grenade on his belt. He activated it for a three-second timer before throwing it into the hall, barely dodging the wild bullets firing everywhere as the patrol tried to find Wolf.

Crouching behind the corner of the hall he had thrown the grenade in, three seconds later, a loud boom went off and smoke poured throughout the hall. There were no voices left.

Kingfisher ran up to him and checked the hallway as Tempest flanked him while Desert hung behind them, offering a hand to him to help him up. Keiji took the hand in appreciation and got up, floating slightly higher than Desert as he pulled a little too hard and his momentum made him rise slightly above. Desert pulled him back down and together they followed Kingfisher into the hall that had once occupied a patrol.

Globs of blood and body parts along with shattered weaponry and the tattered remains of clothing greeted them and Keiji felt a bitter taste in his mouth. That was one of the reasons why he had resigned from OMNI. It was the death that had gotten to him. Even though he had been trained not to throw-up or flinch at death, after seeing so many during his time in the Black Ops, the deaths really did a psychological number on him and he quit.

"How close are we to the control room?" Kingfisher asked and Desert pulled out a small datapad.

"Two more floors up and we should be there," Desert replied and Keiji frowned. It was too easy…there should have been more guards… Yzak had said that the place had been near-crawling with guards, unless all of them had been sent outside to deal with the LF; but even so, there should have been at least a bit more resistance. He glanced at Kingfisher who also wore a frown – thinking along the same exact lines as he was.

"Wolf, any patrols from your vantage point?" Kingfisher asked into the headset.

"No sir," Wolf's deep, but feminine voice replied back, "it's all quiet, too quiet."

"Roger that," Kingfisher said, "keep an eye out."

"Yes sir, Wolf out."

"Let's move," Kingfisher ordered and Keiji followed. They continued deeper into the heart of the colony.

Cagalli put on a burst of throttle and pulled back just in time as the Corsair's beam scythe ripped through. She fired her shoulder gatling guns, peppering the Corsair with them, but they did no damage as the Corsair charged at her. She had thought the mobile suit had a beam saber, but it looked like she had underestimated her opponent. She fired her beam rifle twice, but the Corsair's shield blocked her shots and she growled in frustration.

Nearby she saw the fast moving forms of both Kira and Athrun, engaged in their own battles. She couldn't worry too much as such distracting thoughts were almost always fatal to anyone fighting, so she sent a quick prayer of hope to them before she threw away her almost depleted rifle and instead drew out her beam saber.

"Why are you doing this, Taylor?" she asked. Based on what Yzak, Athrun's former teammate, had said, Taylor was only recently recruited, and was being controlled. Taylor had also been Kira's friend and she didn't want him to suffer anymore losses of his friends. If Taylor could break the programming…then perhaps she would be able to lessen the loss on Kira.

But it was easier said than done, since Taylor was wielding a dangerous mobile suit and if she let her guard down, he would cut her to pieces.

"My dear Princess, if Asterli had not told me you were the pilot of the Strike Rouge then I would not have believed it to be so," Taylor sneered over the comm. as he swiped at her to which she blocked before lashing out with her shield.

"You're a citizen of Orb, one of our own. Why join up with these people?"

"Because they offer something I couldn't have obtained if I stayed in your measly country."

"What?" Cagalli asked, stabbing downward and she smiled grimly as her saber tore through his shield, cutting it in half. She didn't stop as she throttled forward and fired her gatling guns, momentarily blinding the Corsair.

"A new life," Taylor sounded angry.

Cagalli knew that her tactic wasn't working and instead switched to another topic, "I know it wasn't you that planted those bombs in the Senate Hall."

"I should have been the one," Taylor bit back, firing two missiles from his shoulders and Cagalli flew a loop to avoid one while she sliced another in half.

"You were injured along with the others. Didn't that make you angry at your employers? After all, the Talon, like all other groups, take care of their own."

"What the hell would you know!" he shouted and Cagalli knew that she was on the right track.

"The Desert Dawn were freedom fighters like the Talon and we took care of our own. We made sure all of us were safe with each of our missions accomplished. We only wanted to hurt the enemy so we would have more to join to our cause. Hurting ourselves, well," she feinted skepticism, "that wouldn't be too good for our recruitment, right?"

"I already recruited someone, after the bombing," he shot back, throwing his beam saber at her to which she easily dodged. He was getting nervous, angry, and his emotions were throwing off his capabilities to pilot, she noticed, and she was glad. It meant that her words were really digging into him.

"You probably did, but were they injured in the bombing or outside of it? If it was outside, then they probably were hesitant upon joining because of your injuries. An injured unconscious person is easier to recruit, aren't they?" she asked.

"They were outside!" he yelled.

"I don't think so… If they were, then they were really hesitant-"

"You don't hesitate to join the Talon. You just join," Taylor interrupted her angrily before firing off more missiles to which she sliced through all of them. Explosions burst around her, rocking her slightly in her seat, but she refrained from charging at the Corsair. Through her studies, she knew that the first thing when fighting while talking was to let the opponent use up all of their ammunition or energy, then it would be easier to finish them off. Right now, she was letting Taylor do all the work while she just hung back.

"I think with that bombing, even if you do 'just join' you are still hesitant, aren't you?"

"SHUT UP!" he screamed before charging at her, swinging his scythe wildly.

Cagalli blocked all of his swings, before she saw an opportunity arise and she struck downward, slicing the Corsair's legs off. The Corsair stopped its attack and backed away, its legs giving off faint sparks, the circuits cut and exposed.

"You think you've won?" Taylor asked, a slight bubbling laughter of insanity in his voice, "When I go, I will TAKE YOU WITH ME!"

He suddenly charged at her and Cagalli was too surprised to do anything. He embraced her tightly and Cagalli tried to squirm out of the Corsair's grasp, but the hold was tight.

"Taylor! Listen to me!" she suddenly fell into seed-mode and her voice changed slightly, "You will not activate the controls! You will not self-destruct. You value your life a lot and will not kill yourself."

"I…will…n-not…self…destruct," the words seemed like they were forced out of his mouth and Cagalli repeated her words, her eyes narrowed as she tried to concentrate all of her will on stopping Taylor and perhaps breaking the hold the Talon had on him.

"You will let go and desist," she whispered the command. There was something different about this seed-mode she had fallen into, she could feel it, and though it scared her she wondered if part of it was because she was so close to Mendel that its effects, if any, was bringing a different part of her out.

"Let…go…desist," he stuttered slightly before the Corsair loosened its deadly embrace and floated a bit away. Suddenly there was a screaming wail and her eyes widened as the bloodcurdling scream reverberated through her comm. system. An explosion followed after and Cagalli saw that it had come from the Claw. A sudden panic filled her, but it was quelled as she saw the Justice, floating away from the debris that was once the Claw, fairly uninjured.

"Princess…Cagalli?" the voice of Taylor came over, a bit sad, if confused and Cagalli looked at the Corsair.

"Taylor?"

"Oh my God…Princess, I'm so sorry! I apologize for trying to hurt you and the country! Please, please forgive my actions, your highness!" Taylor suddenly spilled out, and crying was heard over the comm.

Cagalli approached the Corsair and placed a hand on its shoulder, "Taylor, please put on your visual."

"I'm too ashamed to, Princess," Taylor said in a soft voice.

"I insist."

"As you wish," moments later a small corner of her main screen lit up with his haggard face and she knew that she had broken through the programming. Gone were the insane eyes, instead a broken man sat in the cockpit before her.

"It wasn't your fault, Taylor Ren. I forgive you for your actions," she said in a gentle voice as Athrun flew up beside her. His image popped up on a small screen underneath Taylor's and Cagalli bit back a gasp at how miserable he looked.

"I couldn't save her," he said, shaking his head.

"But she saved me," Taylor whispered, his head still bowed, "her essence and your help, Princess, saved me…"

Cagalli nodded before bringing up a tactical screen on her left. She scanned it for any signs of the Freedom and Liberty, but frowned as there were no signs. "Athrun, where did Kira go?"

"Kira…" Taylor sighed before he looked up at her, "Griever's leading him into a trap on Mendel… He had said that the three of you would be here and he would kill Kira when he got the chance."

"Shit, we should stop him," Cagalli swore but a shake of Athrun's head made her frown. "What?"

"I'll find Kira. You have to take Taylor back to one of the ships. Take him to the Eternal, there's more than enough room for his mobile suit. He needs medical help."

"All right," Cagalli agreed, "but then I'm coming back to help you."

"No," Athrun said in a firm voice and Cagalli crossed her arms, angry.

"Why not! I'm good enough!"

"No," Athrun said in a gentler voice, "Griever wouldn't hesitate to kill you again. Help Yzak and Dearka clean up the Talon forces out here. We'll be fine in Mendel."

Cagalli didn't like what Athrun was saying, but she knew that it made sense. She also knew that when he came back, they were going to have a little talk about the two of them in battles together. She sighed, "All right. But if you don't come back, I will have to kill you."

Athrun smiled faintly at her statement, "I love you Cagalli."

"I love you too," she replied.

"Athrun, I had said that I converted someone to the Talon. Her name's Haruka Satou and she was supposed to steal aboard one of your ships. She's going to ambush the two teams you sent in and kill everyone. Stop her by shooting off her gold charm bracelet."

"Roger that. Thanks, Taylor."

"It's the least I can do," the teen tried to smile but failed.

"Watch yourself out there," Cagalli suddenly spoke up, a sudden knot of fear suddenly erupting in her stomach.

"I will," Athrun replied before cutting the comm. off and the Justice flew towards Mendel.

Phase Eighteen – Weaving Tangled Webs

Kira flipped on a switch to activate his thermal sensors as he focused on fighting the Liberty in the atmosphere of the innards of Colony Mendel. He spotted the Liberty to his right and fired his beam rifle at it. The green beam tore through the clouds of dust and whatever leftover moisture the Colony still retained, giving him a glimpse of the Liberty dodging before the clouds obscured his vision again.

His sensors traced the heat signature of the Liberty and he fired again. The Liberty had descended below the cloud level and easily avoided his shot. Kira threw away his beam rifle and activated both of his beam sabers. He folded up the veniers on the Freedom and dropped towards the Liberty at a hurling dive. Breaking the cloud level, Kira activated his thrusters at the last minute and slammed into the Liberty, both beam sabers crossed in an 'x' to try to break through the Liberty's defense.

"You think that trick will work again?" Griever asked, laughing slightly as the two of them traded blows.

Kira didn't answer as he tried to ignore the pain pulsating in his head. He had already fallen into his seed-mode, long ago, even before the battle had started, and now was beyond anger. He had said that his clone-brother was one of the most dangerous people alive, and needed to be killed. There was no hope of redemption or reconciliation, considering that Griever was genetically engineered and unnaturally born just to be an assassin. There was no doubt in Kira's mind that Nikolai Mercus was even remotely human…

It wasn't the fury he had against Rau Le Creuset during that battle, but it was more akin to deep seeded anger. Anger at Dr. Hibiki, anger at his own self, and anger at what he was what someone with the right tools could do to him if he had been in Griever's position. It was anger that fueled him to go after Nikolai.

They clashed again and this time Kira lashed out with his leg, kicking Griever in the side and he crashed straight to the ground in a dust heap. He hovered above slightly, his beam saber pointed downwards in case of any sudden attack, but as the dust cleared, there was no movement from the Liberty. Frowning, he brought up a few screens and his eyes narrowed as he saw the small form of Griever, running towards an abandoned building, escaping inside.

Kira knew that his mother and father were inside, trying to sabotage Mendel and destroy all of its records, and he knew that he couldn't let Griever get to them first – to stop the two teams from completing their mission. Landing the Freedom, he undid his restraining belt quickly before grabbing a handgun on the side of his seat and popping open his hatch. He quickly threw his helmet onto his chair before hopping out, landing onto the dust ground.

Coming up from his crouch he switched the gun's safety off, a sense of déjà vu engulfing him as he realized that he had chased after Mu and Rau in almost the same fashion. Except this time it was different – this time he knew who his target was and Rau's words could no longer hurt him.

He ran inside the building that Griever had gone and immediately hugged the wall nearest to the door. It was dimly lit inside, full of narrow halls…

"You can never catch me," Griever's voice suddenly echoed to his right and he pointed his gun down a hall and saw a shadow pass by.

Kira fired once, but the bullet just hit the wall before he ducked behind a pillar as a spray of bullets came his way. He cursed silently as he knew he had given away his position. The firing stopped and Kira peeked back out…nothing…

He quickly made his way down the hall, peeking around the corner and saw that it was all clear. Turning the corner, he walked slowly down it, keeping close to the wall. There were no doors…which meant that if Griever shot at him, he would have to do some fancy ducking or else he would get a bullet in him.

He rounded another corner and suddenly dove across the hall as Griever fired at him. Kira cried out as a bullet lodged itself in his leg, sending him sprawling onto the ground. He grabbed his wound and his gloves came away slick with red blood. Shooting pain filled him and he tried to ignore it as he stared at the wound, before his hands, shaking slightly from both the pain and the shock that he had been shot, pulled out a long strip of gauze that he kept on his flightsuit's small pocket-pouch and he tied it tightly over the wound.

Pulling the knot tight, Kira grunted slightly as he made a makeshift tourniquet. There was no way to take the bullet out, and he stood up on shaky legs, grateful that Griever had not taken the advantage and shoot some more at him. Combined with the pulsating pain that he had whenever he was near Griever and the pain radiating from his wound, he leaned against the cool metallic wall for a second before picking up his gun again.

He limped over to the side and stuck his head out just in time to see Griever go through a door. Anger filled him and he fired two shots at the closing door, but they clanged off. Pushing off on his good leg, he floated towards the door and keyed the pad, but the door stayed shut.

"Shit," Kira swore as he realized that Griever had locked him out. He looked around before going down another hall way. There had to be another way into whatever room the pilot of the Liberty had slipped through. Setting off, he held his gun ready…

Griever shook his head, trying to get rid of the pain that had been gnawing at him ever since he had battled with Kira Yamato. But he knew that it was a pain that wasn't to end until one of them was dead. He would kill Kira; he would stop the pain that the other boy was giving him.

Anderson had told him off all those that had betrayed him, and he would have his chance to exact his revenge. He would be able to avenge his father and continue on with his life. He didn't really believe Anderson, but for now, he knew that he would play along. After all, Anderson's plan was pretty easy to follow – it was only a matter of time before he would get rid of everyone that had betrayed him and he would be able to live his own free life.

He would be able to control the world and all those that knew of what he was would have to be forced to obey him – lest start another war. He knew the people of both the Earth and PLANT didn't want another war, but there were still those that wanted one. He would deal with them when the time came, but right now, getting rid of the factions that was likely to start a war was his priority – getting rid of those that knew who and what he was.

It wasn't madness, it was his wish…

His powers would be able to make that wish come true. He was mildly surprised that Kira hadn't accessed his own powers and was also annoyed, but knew that it wasn't a matter of consequence if his "brother" knew how to or not – the simple answer was Kira was going to die and he would be the instrument of his death.

But for now, he had other things to attend to…

Kanoko stared at the information scrolling across her screens. It was worst than what she had thought…all those years ago, she had personally made sure many of the files had been deleted and their back-ups too, but it seemed that she hadn't seen a second layer of encryption that had been keyed to Dr. Hibiki's work…the ones that Katherine had warned her about.

She wished that she had listened to her good friend's words, but she knew that if wishes were fishes, then Katherine would be alive, and nothing like this would have happened. She kept deleting the files, barely noticing that both Sunne and Ivanov were prowling behind her.

"Ledonil?"

"Yes?" he said from a control panel behind her in the far back of the small room.

"From your controls, are there third and fourth encryptions?"

"None that I can tell," Ledonil replied and Kanoko breathed a quick sigh of relief.

"Good," she whispered before continuing on her work.

"Andrea can you-"

She never got to finish her sentence before Ivanov's strangled scream made her blood run cold. She turned just in time to see a spurt of blood erupt from the man's head before a second gunshot tore through Sunne's face, making her stomach lurch. She screamed before another click of a gun stopped her and she saw in the door frame a person that looked exactly like Kira, holding a gun at her.

"Kira…" she breathed, but realized that it wasn't her son, but the twisted experiment that had the face of her son… "No…Griever…Nikolai Mercus."

"Very good, Mrs. Yamato…or should I say formerly Dr. Kamiya, one of Dr. Hibiki's top assistants," Griever said in a cold voice and Kanoko shuddered to hear her son's voice through his – so foreign and alien… "Uh-uh," he suddenly pointed the gun into the shadows, "I wouldn't Ledonil Kisaka. Drop it."

He suddenly fired and there was a grunt from Ledonil before the sound of a gun clattering to the floor was heard.

"Flesh wound, Dr. Kamiya," Griever smiled thinly at her while he kept his gun trained on the shadows, "we wouldn't want Commander Kisaka here to be dead, now would we. I'm sure Sven would like to see him too…along with you, his former colleague."

"You-"

"Didn't have to kill them?" Griever finished her sentence in a simple voice, "but I had to, Doctor. They knew their duty and their duty was to die. Yours will be too, but that's for later, at Sven's expense."

Ledonil suddenly muttered something that Kanoko couldn't quite catch, but Griever laughed, a horrible cold laugh.

"My, my, language Commander. Now, get up, you too Doctor, unless you want me to put a hole in you and your good friend?"

Kanoko got up slowly, finding herself shaking and her knees weak as she tried not to look at the remains of Andrea Sunne's body. Already globs of her blood from her exploded head were forming and drifting around the room, some smacking into her own armor and it made her sick to her stomach. She tried to force the dry heave down, and barely managed to as she stepped towards Griever who indicated to them to go outside.

As she passed by Griever, she couldn't help but notice that he looked to be in some pain, but then she was shoved outside and she felt her gun being pulled out of her holster.

"I don't think you'll be needing this," Griever tossed the weapon back into the room before closing the door. "Move," he ordered, poking her in the back with his gun and she stared to walk forward. Beside her she saw that Ledonil's right hand was stained crimson and that it was hanging limply by his side.

She swallowed past a lump in her throat as she knew that Griever was taking them to Sven Anderson. She could only hope that her husband's team was successful and perhaps could rescue them.

Keiji frowned. It had been too easy…too little guards, too little security…there had to be cameras watching them, he was sure of it. The whole thing reeked of an ambush… Even Wolf was starting to worry over the comm., but a quick word from Kingfisher silenced her.

"Kingfisher," he whispered over the comm., switching to a private channel he and his former teammate had back when they were both in OMNI Special Ops.

"What Akuma?" he whispered back, a few feet in front of him, taking point before he waved Tempest forward, with Desert following quickly behind.

"This smells like a trap," he said it outright. He had never beat around the bush like many of his other colleagues back in the Special Ops. He had always said his mind and though he sometimes got punished for it, most of the time it was him that saved his teammates' lives.

"I know," Kingfisher replied, "but we still have a mission objective."

"Yeah, but…think about it, what if he's not really there? What if he's somewhere else?"

"And there's an explosive of sorts waiting for us?" Kingfisher finished his thought.

"Yeah," Keiji replied.

"We still finish the job," Kingfisher replied with conviction, "Bartfield told me that Desert is a good demolitions expert and like you always said, even if we're duped, we still have a job to do. We have to confirm if he's there or not and if he's not then we know for sure, but if he is there and we back off, then we're in for a whole hell lot of trouble in the future."

"Yeah," Keiji agreed before he moved forward and tapped his friend on the shoulder, "thanks."

"Welcome," his friend replied before moving forward by Desert now on point.

They reached the main door to the control room where Yzak had told them that Anderson usually hung out and Kingfisher nodded for Desert to plant a small explosive.

They all stood back a few feet as the explosive went off in a small poof of a cloud and sparks before the door hinge broke and Tempest yank the door open, before they stormed in.

Keiji pointed his gun in multiple directions, his eyes covering everything and absorbing the layout of the room in split seconds while his senses were alert to any forms of attack, but there was none.

The room was bathed in a blood red light that would have made an ordinary man have shivers, but Keiji was used to different lights and treated it as it was part of his usual life. Circles of control panels were grouped in different areas of the control room and further into the corner, he saw two tanks, glowing green, full of what looked like partially developed fetuses.

Blinking lights from consoles decorated the wall, along with chairs that looked like they were recently occupied, but abandoned at the last second.

"Tempest-"

Suddenly gunshots rang out from behind them and Keiji reacted without thinking. He dove behind a control panel before bringing his assault rifle to bear. He was suddenly slammed to the floor as two people crashed down on him and they rolled over to take cover too in the control panel. Keiji pushed up his helmet that had gotten skewed and saw that it was both Kingfisher and Desert.

However, the young DaCosta, or Desert, didn't look too well and that was when he noticed that the young red-headed man was bleeding seriously from a wound in his hip that the Kevlar armor hadn't protected him from.

"Shit," he swore as he pulled out an emergency medical pack from his own vest and fumbled a bit before taking out gauze and some supplies. Desert was sweating and his face was pale.

"It's a freaking girl!" he barely heard Kingfisher over the loud barrage of the assault rifle followed by gun shots that were aimed almost too precisely at them. Keiji involuntarily ducked as a few bullets pinged off of their makeshift hiding place.

He concentrated on Desert who was staring at him, eyes full of pain as his fists were clenched. "It's all right," he tried to soothe the young man as he stabbed in his thigh an adrenaline stick before sticking another needle in him to numb the pain around the wounded area. He mopped up the blood that was spilling over, cursing at how much blood the young man was losing to a wound that big.

If he had guessed, he would have thought that the girl, or whatever persons, (he still didn't believe that it was just a single girl), had ambushed them had fired twice in the same spot to penetrate the Kevlar armor. It was uncanny…and very, very skilled…

"Wolf!" he heard Kingfisher shout before the loud boom of the sniper rifle was heard but still there was firing from whoever had ambushed them.

"Kingfisher, where's Tempest?" he asked, ducking slightly as a few flecks of the control panel shaved off from a bullet and onto his face.

"Dead," Kingfisher said a gruff voice before slapping another fresh clip into his rifle and rose up from his hiding place. "Jesus," he said as he ducked back down, "just one girl."

"One!" Keiji put pressure on the wound, wincing as Desert screamed in pain.

"Just one, but she's like a sniper with her handgun or whatever the hell she's holding," Kingfisher said before rising up again and firing a few rounds. He ducked back down and Keiji noticed that blood was dripping from a piece of shrapnel that had cut into his forehead.

"Here let me get that-"

"Oh hell no…" his friend suddenly said just as the gunfire stopped and Keiji looked to where he was pointing too and his body seized up at the sight.

Beyond them, from another entrance stood his wife and Ledonil…and behind them, what looked like an exact replica of Kira.

"Shit," he cursed softly as a clapping sound echoed in the silent room before he saw from their vantage point, a man with graying brown hair that was rakishly cut dressed in a immaculate business suit. He was wearing glasses, but they were perched on the end of his nose.

"Very well done, very well done," the man clapped while an insane grin lit up his face.

Sven Anderson. The man behind all of this…

But Keiji couldn't do anything as Griever held his wife at gunpoint. He had sworn to himself to protect his family, and that was priority to the mission…

Phase Nineteen – Truth of Birth

Sven Anderson looked around at his 'guests'. He smiled as he saw the defiant look upon Kanoko Yamato's face and at the three people huddled in the corner. Snorting slightly he gestured for them to come out of their hiding place, but they stayed stubbornly in there. Sighing, he shrugged…there was always the stubborn ones. Walking over to the center of the room he saw his faithful servant, Griever usher both Kanoko and Ledonil Kisaka in.

"Ah, welcome, my dear colleagues. It's been so long since we've met and chatted," he greeted with a toothy smile.

"You were supposed to be dead," Kanoko spat at him and he smiled.

"Yes, yes, I was…but here I am, alive and well," he spread his hands out, "you would like to know why? Well, your dear friend Katherine did try to kill me, but I was the one to kill her."

"What!" he laughed at her outburst and the paleness of her face.

"But the little bitch unfortunately blew up all of my research, all of what I was trying to save. But luckily, Patrick Zala and Anton Ariga LaFlaga had their notes and so I was able to build on Ulen's research again. Surprisingly, Zala kept a lot of the samples he had stolen from Ulen and only a few of the fetuses used by Hibiki had survived so I was able to rebuild and create my dear Nikolai.

"But, I didn't want to stop there. Why leave the genes unexplored for the ultimate Coordinator when you can actually improve upon it. Come here, Nikolai…show them…"

He didn't even blink as he saw his creation teleport from behind both Kanoko and Ledonil next to him, but smiled at the gasps of surprise that came from both groups. A small nod and Griever teleported again, this time to a vantage point where he was able to see everything.

"He-"

"Teleportation, ahh…more than that, I'm afraid, but you'll be able to see much later. You, my dear Doctor Kamiya, used to wonder at the exploration of the human genome. You used to see the project as something that you would hope to quell more illnesses and perhaps expand the life of humans beyond what we have now. Have you lost that fervor?"

"Yes," she said in an icy voice, "because of what freaks like you did. You created life in such an artificial way that couldn't be contained! You unleashed horrors into this world…you try to create life whereas God should be the one to do it!"

Sven shook his head, "That is disappointing my dear Doctor. We all create life on our own, don't we? We all try to breathe into the life of our own sons and daughters for us…so isn't that artificially creating life? How can you say that and have that first creation as your own son?"

"Kira is none of your concern," this time it was her husband that said and Sven turned his attention to the man who was crouched behind a control panel.

"Ah, Akuma. You had your mission to capture the experiment you call Kira, didn't you? But you betrayed your own mission and your own organization. Zala was going to breathe life into the one you called Kira and you denied him that chance," he smiled maliciously, enjoying every minute of the conversation.

"I didn't deny him. Kira was going to be used as a weapon of mass destruction. I couldn't allow something like that on my conscious…no human in their right mind would," Keiji Yamato said in a dark voice.

"Then you are saying we scientists are insane?"

"Only some of you," Keiji countered and Sven's lips pulled into a wider smile.

"Then we are all scientists. We are all trying to create life just to see our dreams and our experiments. There is nothing different between you or me!"

"There is a difference and you are a monster! He-" he watched as Kanoko stabbed a finger in Griever's direction, "is an abomination. A warped creation that shouldn't have to exist in such a miserable fashion!"

"You're right of course," Sven shook his head in mock sadness, "it is not my dear Nikolai's fault he has to exist in pain so many times. Of course to remedy that one must die. It is either him or your 'Kira'. I personally think that Nikolai is superior to the original…it is the greatest creation!"

"You're insane," Ledonil said and Sven smirked at the former head of security to Dr. Hibiki.

"Quite the contrary, Commander, I'm perfectly sane. I just have a vision of the future. Where Coordinators and Naturals can exist under one leader that can help people with his powers," he said in a voice that was like a teacher teaching children.

"Do you expect to be that leader?" Ledonil asked.

"Why of course not. I'm only the one to usher in the new era. Once that's done, I will rest on an island and watch as the world continues its course to peace. Of course, the first thing that has to happen is for both ZAFT, OMNI, and Orb's destruction."

"That's not going to happen," the man crouched next to Keiji said and Sven tilted his head for a second, trying to fit a name with the man, and suddenly remembered him as the infamous Kingfisher.

"Why not Kingfisher?" he asked, "ZAFT betrayed my work here at Mendel by nearly destroying my career. OMNI shunned my superior abilities and sent me off to work at a penal colony. Orb…they could have done something but they let me rot! YOU ALL LET ME SUFFER AND NO MORE!"

"You're right, no more," a new voice spoke up from one of the doors and Sven stared at the entrance, surprise jolting him as he realized that the person hidden by shadows was Kira Yamato…

Kira stayed in the shadows, propped up against the door frame. His leg felt like it was on fire and the pain that radiated from his wound sent spasms each time he put weight on it. He was glad that Mendel was near-zero-g, but any movement from his leg still gave off fiery pains of protest. He held his gun steady at Sven Anderson, knowing that Griever was still in the room, but Anderson was the real target for now.

"Kira, so glad you can join us!" Anderson's booming voice made him narrow his eyes, "I trust that you're feeling well?"

He didn't answer as he knew that Anderson was baiting him, whether to give away his position to Griever, or for something else, he didn't care. All he cared about was getting rid of Anderson and getting rid of Griever. The pain in his head had become very acute and it was like stabbing millions of knives into his head all at once and repeating the process over and over again.

"Oh wait…you can't be feeling well, it's the pain isn't it? It's clawing at you…I know because it is the fate of two almost clones, meeting one another. They can't exist at the same time…that was why that 'accidental' death of Anton Ariga LaFlaga was no accident. Surely you must have heard it from Rau, didn't you?"

Kira didn't answer, but he was listening carefully.

"Ah, I sense your hesitation," Anderson said in an oily voice, "Rau never told you did he? I'm sure he told you of your circumstantial birth…after all, he could have never kept such a secret to himself. No…Rau knew for a fact that you were the only successful test trial only because the brothers that came after you would have experienced an acute pain that eventually could kill both you and your siblings.

"When he was first 'born' I guess you can say, he began to experience pangs of pain and he realized that it was because he was a clone of Ariga. He realized that only one of them could exist and thereby made sure his predecessor was eliminated. However, sadly he wasn't able to contain the gene that made him have those deadly headaches and eventually succumbed to his own madness. However, I have perfected that gene so that when you die, my dear Nikolai would not suffer the same fate as Rau Le Creuset. After all, how could something so perfect be the one to die?

"But what to do about Princess Cagalli? She too is sibling… She too could suffer the same fate. The objective then is to eliminate the one that has caused all of this too. She was the one, if that bitch Katherine had not given birth to her, wouldn't have gotten into this whole mess!

"Weapons…weapons are what we need. Not some stupid birthing process in comparison. There are no weapons that exist right now. The improvement of clones is what needs to be done!"

Kira stared as he realized that Anderson had started to babble, and began to pace around. The man was mad…making speeches one minute, the next pacing like a mad scientist with plans for world domination. He narrowed his eyes… "You forgot one thing, Anderson."

"What!" the man snapped, angry at being interrupted in his musings. Kira noticed that his father and Kingfisher were edging out, ready to shoot both Griever and Anderson while his mother and Ledonil were edging towards cover behind a group of control panels.

"Dr. Ulen Hibiki may have created me, but I'll always be human. I've come to accept that," he gave a quick look towards his mother and father before staring back at Anderson and took a step forward from the shadows. His eyes crystallized into seed-mode and he raised his gun up, "my sister is not the cause of all this, but she helped create a weapon. Me."

"….Your…eyes…" this time Anderson looked completely shocked and Kira fired.

Kanoko dove behind a control panel as Kira fired his handgun, but she heard the other barrage of fire coming from her husband and Kingfisher. She didn't care as she covered her head with her arms and closed her eyes tightly. She didn't want to see anymore blood…no more violence…

Soon the firing stopped and she unwrapped her arms and looked up. Her son hadn't been the only one firing… She still couldn't believe the words Kira had said…they were haunting and chilled her to the bones. It was as if all of the pressures he had faced turned into something else and he had wielded it with dangerous fury. She wondered what had changed in Kira to make him like this…

"Kira?" she whispered his name as he saw him standing still as a statue, staring at the fallen form of Anderson. His gun was lowered, but his eyes were still cold, still in that crystallized state that scared her so much…what had Dr. Hibiki create? No…he didn't create anything, Kira wasn't created; he was her son…

"I…I…" he stared at the gun in his hand and Kanoko watched as his eyes returned to their normal soulful state…but tears had started to bunch in the corners and she gasped as he suddenly collapsed to the ground.

She started to rush over, but someone she had never expected to see beat her to it. Athrun was instantly by Kira's side, prying the gun from his hand and kneeling next to him, a hand on his shoulder to comfort him.

"It's all right, Kira…its over. You don't have to do this anymore," she heard his whisper as Kira started to cry.

It was then that she noticed that Griever was no longer standing, but had collapsed in a heap where he was…unmoving. She wondered if he was dead, but ignored it as she didn't want to see the face that looked almost exactly like Kira's…dead…

She got up slowly and walked over to where Athrun and Kira were before kneeling down next to her son. Catching Athrun's eye he nodded then backed off slightly as she wrapped her arms around Kira and let him cry onto her shoulder. "There, there…" she soothed him gently, rubbing circles in his back as tears poured from his eyes.

She looked up and saw her husband walking over to help a young girl up. She looked lost and confused, but a broken gold charm bracelet was in her hand and blood was seeping down her arm where someone had shot her. He caught her gaze and nodded before she turned to see Ledonil checking to make sure Sven Anderson was truly dead while Kingfisher was checking to make sure Nikolai Mercus was dead…

Was it over? Kanoko hoped so as she held her son in her arms.

Outside the rest of the Talon forces surrendered to the LF after the Brimstone had been heavily damaged. Both Yzak and Dearka sat back in their cockpits of their Gundams, exhausted after finding a new wave of forces that were hidden. They had been fighting furiously to contain them and even with Cagalli's help barely kept them off.

On board the Babylon, to which Lacus had taken command, she sat in the captain's chair, her face showing relief at the completion of the battle. They had received a lot of damage, but the worst was of the Archangel and the Kusanagi who had taken most of the damage.

"Eternal to Babylon, Miss Lacus do you read?" the worried voice of Andrew Bartfield came over and Lacus gave the exhausted looking man a small smile.

"I read you Captain," she said, trying not to let her tiredness show.

"Good news…both Anderson and Griever have been eliminated," Bartfield said, giving her a wan smile.

"And Kira?" she had seen Kira disappear into Mendel and immediately worry had clung to her.

"He's fine. Wounded, but he'll be fine," Bartfield said and Lacus nodded in relief.

"Thank you Captain…"

Meanwhile, aboard the Archangel, Murrue Ramius slumped into her seat as she rubbed a hand massaging her temples. She had sent the crew for damage assessment and it was mostly quiet save for the occasional calls of what damages each section had sustained. The battle had been won…the Talon had been defeated. Mu, we're fine, she thought to his spirit, you can sleep safely now…

Hours later there was only two people left in the colony area. All others had retreated to a relatively safe distance. Both Kanoko Yamato and Ledonil Kisaka, the only survivors of the horrors of Mendel stood in a shuttle, watching as the remnants of Mendel floated in space. They had spent hours meticulously combing the whole colony and planting explosives and destroying any files that were relevant to the whole project. All the tanks that had contained fetuses were destroyed and Kanoko had shed no tear for the dead babies…they were not human, not to be used anymore…death was a better alternative for them.

"Ready?" Ledonil asked her in a gentle voice.

"I don't know…I'll never be ready, but do it anyways," she replied and Kisaka pressed the simultaneous detonation switch. All at once, the explosives wired to various stuff in the colony went off and Mendel exploded into a giant fireball before the vacuum of space dissipated it quickly – leaving only dust and ashes…

"The door's been closed on this era…it is time for a new one," Kisaka said in a solemn voice and Kanoko nodded.

"Truth of words," she whispered.

Phase Twenty – Epilogue – Dawn's Carriage, Peace

In the end of all things, the LF had proven to both PLANT and Earth that it was needed to keep the peace between everyone. Many had joined up after the Talon Incident, realizing that their bigotry against one another was just another cause for war and war was not what they wanted. Everyone had come to love the peace, but where there are always human emotions there will always be the spark of rebellion.

Yzak Joule had returned to PLANT and rejoined ZAFT, but still occasionally participated in the LF when rebellion occurred.

Dearka Elsman and Miriallia Haw had sat down and discussed their future and both realized that they needed some time apart to cope with their own ghosts. Miri eventually decided to move on and returned to Dearka, but Dearka knew that he couldn't replace Tolle; he would help her cope and perhaps find a new love.

Murrue Ramius continued captaining the Archangel, and was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral for her actions against the Talon. Combined with both the Quinn Misali in the Kusanagi and Andrew Bartfield in the Eternal they split into three fleets, each for ZAFT, Earth, and Orb, but united against a common enemy.

Ledonil Kisaka had returned to his duties as both Cagalli's protector and the captain of the police force. He started training undercover LF officers to stand guard in the Senate Hall whenever they were in session to prevent another bombing from happening again.

Keiji and Kanoko Yamato both returned to their normal lives, Keiji officially retiring from the military and started teaching at Orb's main island high school. Kanoko had been offered a job in the Scientific Coordinator-Natural Research department, but declined the offer.

Taylor Ren joined up with the LF, after an extensive evaluation and Haruka Satou dropped out of college to pursue her own career.

Lacus Clyne returned to PLANT and became the Foreign Minister to firm up relations between the Earth and PLANT. She and her Vice Foreign Minister, Senator Amalfi who had been cleared of all charges, worked hard in trying to keep peace and continue good relations between both PLANT and Earth.

Cagalli Yula Attha continued to lead Orb and preside over the Senate Hall, but this time she was always accompanied by Athrun who had become her bodyguard. Athrun still worked in Morganroete, but it was more part-time than full-time.

And last but not least, Kira Yamato recovered from his wounds, but his psyche was still a delicate state. He graduated college with full honors, but decided not to do anything with his degree at the moment… He still wondered about his clone-brother Nikolai Mercus and his fate as a creation of Dr. Hibiki…

Entropy rising, destiny falling…