Following the stealth plane's low altitude pass over, 9 shadows can be seen gliding down the peak before grouping up a few meters away. One of them flips his PDA open, and studies it for a moment.

"That faint DARTH signal is originating south-east-south of here. Kira, Faye, and Rusty will trace that signal-" started the one who appears to be the leader.

"But, Miguel, our schedule will be compromised this way" interrupted Rusty.

"I'm aware of that. But that signal is too significant to be ignored. Athrun or Martin might be there. So Kira, just wrap it up quick and reinforce us ASAP"

"Yes, sir" replied the person behind the tinted helmet visor.

"Ahmed, you will disable the power source with Nicol and Edward. Julie, Arnold, and I will scout Athrun and Martin out. Operation start in 30 min at 0000 hrs" ordered Miguel as he shoved his PDA back into his vest.

The nine operatives immediately break into 3 groups and snowboard down the mountain in different directions. Kira adjusts his helmet to project the signal tone more clearly as Faye and Rusty weave among the trees ahead of him. Even by being shielded by the forest, the blizzard is so strong that they can still feel the winds trying to knock them off balance.

Deceitful Truth

"Mr. Azrael, sir" saluted a soldier, "our scouts have reported that ORB and ZAFT forces have stationed themselves just outside our perimeter."

"Well, well. They are unusually late" he remarked, tapping his fingers on the side of a keyboard, "bring Ms. Athha here, would you? At least one of them is enough for now."

"Right away, sir"

"Wait, any news from those three yet?"

"They have been sent to check out the detected strange activity at the mountain top. Other than that, no, sir"

"Raise the alert to 2nd level battle stations, just in case. Dismissed"

After the soldier left, Murrue asked, "What are you planning to do with her? Leave the students out of this."

Azrael turns his chair to face her, shakes his head, and said, "You are a demanding lady, don't you know that? It's fortunate that you're a Natural. Otherwise, I would have killed you right away, so I suggest you keep your mouth shut like the rest before I rip it out of your pretty face, okay?"

"Uh-oh. Danger ahead" said Rusty when he noticed a rather wide crevasse blocking their way.

"There! A fallen tree" followed Faye as she swerved for the correct position to cross.

Rusty and Kira followed her in a single file, forming a short train of blowing white cloaks. As the trio was passing over the tree, it slipped off on one end, forcing them to jump off. When they thought the worst was over, their landing area back onto the snow is filled with rocks, causing Faye, being the first, to get launched up a few meters into the air when her snowboard acts like diving board, and landing her on her butt, luckily, on a soft snow spot. Rusty safely crash-lands his board on a face of the rock. Kira, who jumped before the log fell, headed straight for tree branch, but he draws his rifle right in the nick of time and uses it to stop a direct impact.

"Ow,ow,ow,ow" whined Faye, until she felt 2 hands under her arms pulling her up. Her heart skips a beat for she never had her chest area touched by anyone.

"We are close, let's go" said Kira, hooking his board under his backpack and resumed on foot.

Rusty slapped her on the back, and said, "You heard the man. Let's go"

No more than 50 paces away stood a rather peculiar rock structure with an ice face. The signal tone in Kira's helmet pulsed more rapidly as he steps closer to the ice. On the other side of the ice, DaCosta's cell phone starts to vibrate in response to the trio's DARTH encrypted PDA signal. Since the cave is sealed up, oxygen supply for its tired occupants is running low; most of them have already fainted. DaCosta stirs up upon feeling the vibration in his pocket. He reaches into his pocket; flicks open the phone with his trembling hand, and read the text massage warning him to stay clear of the ice wall. With the last ounce of his strength, he pulls 5 kids, who are the closest to the wall, further back into the cave, before falling on the rocky ground. Outside, Kira plants a C4 on the foot of the ice wall while is Faye and Rusty is scouting the area.

"There's a cable car mess th-Holy!" Rusty said as he walked back and stopped upon seeing the blinking blue light on top of the plastic charge through his night vision/infrared visor.

Kira motioned for them to take cover before he blew the charge. The explosion shook the ground quite violently. Fortunately, the tree roots surrounding the area prevented an avalanche and the ongoing blizzard muffled the explosive noise. The three approached the center of the blast as the winds rapidly blew the mist away. The semicircle of snow on the ground in front of the ice had evaporated, and the wall had fallen out with its bottom inside the cave.

For once in several hours, fresh oxygen rushed into the cave. Kira leaped into the cave, checking the vital signs of the kids. Faye and Rusty followed suit.

"All of them should be alive" said DaCosta weakly as he tries to get up, to which Kira prevents him and helps him lie down.

"Ms. Clyne. She's, she got separated…somewhere between here and the 4th car north of the car…with the cracked window…I'm not sure…"

"How long has it been?" Kira asked abruptly

"About… 4 hours"

Kira rushes back out of the cave, brushing past Rusty, who said, "Oh boy, already 2354 hours. The guys down there are really gonna be shorthanded"

The lens of a pair of infrared binoculars peeks out off the pile of snow atop a cliff overlooking the Davos valley. The eyes behind that binoculars keenly observe the enemies' positions and movements, especially the VTOL aircraft and 3 larger ones parked in the open space between the lodges and lake. About a couple dozen Strike Daggers including other heavy armor units surrounds the area. He switches occasionally to the stealthy advance of two heat sources within the lodging sector.

"Miguel, power control terminal successfully seized," said Ahmed over radio, "power cut on your signal"

"Right" he replied, setting the binoculars down and pulling a muffled anti-armor .43cal from his side. "Attention all units. Operation will commence as scheduled. Kira's team will provide sniping cover for you. Interference will cut communication for the duration of this mission…Power out in…5…4…3…2…1"

Athrun tensed as a couple of soldiers approach his position. Seated cross-legged, his sweaty right palm slowly reaches down into his left sock. His eyes wildly scan the other guards as he counted the steps of the approaching soldiers. He noticed that over the past 5 hours or so, the alert levels of the enemy have deteriorated, enabling him to take them on without incurring any casualty. However, by doing so, he would have to blow his cover, and that is unacceptable by DARTH's policy. One of the soldiers came within striking his distance, followed by the other one, but some guards are keeping a close eye on them.

"Would you come with me, please?" inquired one of them politely to Cagalli, "Mr. Athha is on the line and wishes to speak to you"

"Father? Where?" Cagalli asked, suddenly springing to her feet.

"If you would…" the soldier ushered her.

Athrun tries to stop her when she started walking, but he ended up staring into the barrel of the other soldier's rifle, forcing him to sit back down. He watches as the main doors closed behind Cagalli's figure; his agitation shot up dramatically within that long 30 seconds.

Right at the moment he chose to take action, the lights went out, leaving the room pitch black, and silent for a few seconds; only the violent howl of the winds outside could be heard. Even though hardly any eyes could see in that darkness, DARTH operatives have been trained to use other senses in darkness.

"What's happening?" one of the soldiers asked, "My radio is out. Strange. What about yours?"

Athrun took that chance, sneaks up on one of the panicking guards, and slit his throat silently while covering his mouth. One of the guards heard the faint struggle, switches on his rifle's torch light and scanned the room, followed by the other eight. By this time, the students are already standing up and attempts to rebel amidst the confusion. Three of the soldiers fired several shots into the ceiling to threaten them, but to no avail. One of them decided to apply lethal force, but Athrun quickly placed a bullet in his brain. His shot sounded like the 'go!' shot of a track and field running event as the students start pouncing on the soldiers, who are giving themselves away by having that torch lights; 7 boys, both coordinators and naturals took down one soldier and giving him a beating of a lifetime; another soldier, who tries to contact the outside, was tackled to the ground; Yzak and Dearka took the time to toy with one before whupping him. The once silent lobby was filled with shouting of students, and wailings of mercy of the soldiers. Athrun quickly seizes the rifles and turns the torch lights off amidst the violence. He is ready to sneak out of the lobby when he suddenly senses movement right on the other side of the door. He hides to the side of the only unsealed door and pointed one of the rifles across. Then, the door swiftly swung open, followed by 4 ball-shaped objects. Athrun quickly identifies the objects and shuts his eyes and ducks for covers while covering his ears. The 4 flashbangs exploded, causing extensive temporary blindness and deafness within the rowdy teenagers throughout the lobby. Sensing steps in front of him, he rapidly scrambles for one of the rifles, only to feel a cold ring-shaped material on his forehead.

"Athrun?" Arnold said, moving his weapon away before pulling Athrun up.

"They are probably going to be out for some time" Julie said upon noticing the beaten-to-pulp soldiers. She then throws an integrated text phosphorous light into the middle of the still stunned students, marking 'Clear' and at the same time, informing them to stay inside and wait for help.

"The operation is on. ZAFT and ORB rescue teams are sweeping the lodging sectors right now. Communication is out, but Ahmed's and Kira's teams should already be engaging the enemy" informed Arnold, handing Athrun several ammo clips and explosives.

"Kira?" he asked, surprised, before following the other two out, "What about Athha?"

"We saw a jeep driving past earlier on. Ahmed should be intercepting it" Julie replied, "We have approximately 180 seconds to complete our objectives before ZAFT and ORB starts MSs launch"

"Lacus!" Kira called within that dark abyss.

He jumps off the rope while it's still suspended 5 meters off the bottom. Through his thermal detection visor, her body appears almost light blue instead of the normal reddish orange. Kira picks her upper body off the ground and lightly shakes her, but there's no response. He felt a rather sizable bump on the back of her head. Although no blood is visible, she may have suffered internal bleeding. He then takes off his gloves and touches her frigid wrist to check for her faint pulse; he puts his helmet down and feels for her short breath. Those couple evidences of her life lighten the pressure off him. Upon glancing to his side, he caught sight of a broken log; the one he recognized earlier on which fell off the top. If it were to slide down a few inches nearer, Lacus would have been crushed. Thinking of no other way to increase her body temperature, he doffs his liquid padded thermal body armor and gloves, and dons it on her, only hesitating for a moment about opening her top. Nevertheless, he did it anyway. Carrying her on his shoulder, he signaled for the two to hoist him up.

"Is she alive?" asked Rusty the moment Kira's head pokes out of the gulch.

"Yea-" he was suddenly interrupted when a bullet streaks past just a millimeter off his forehead, hacking parts of his hair away.

"Holy crap!" Rusty cursed, dropping flat on the snow and keeping his view towards the source of the shot.

Faye helps Kira pull Lacus up onto the snow before tossing his rifle back to him. The three then lay flat on ground for a few seconds until Kira motions for them to take cover behind a boulder nearby. Rusty scrambles towards cover, followed by Faye; and then Kira, who carries Lacus on his back, and having another bullet streaking through the pink hair.

To the northwest of their position, at the fallen cable-cars, three figures are stationed. One, who is lying on the snow, reloads the chamber of his sniper rifle while the other 2 kneels down and watches with their binoculars.

"You missed again Orga! 2 times!" shouted one of the onlookers, though dampened by the howling winds.

"Idiot" muttered the other.

"Would you want to try it then! Crot? Shani?" retorted the last one, "if you want it done, then get in there in finish this job! The winds are knocking my shots off course and I'm freezing!"

"Fine!" shouted Crot as he stood up and starts moving towards his target.

"Where did it come from?" asked Faye as she returns Kira's gear.

"Somewhere between our 6 to 8 o'clock" replied Rusty, who was leaning on to the rock. "Dammit, they have the elevation advantage, and those fallen cable cars provide a good cover"

Kira observes the flat, rock-riddled area they are stuck in. Although moving between boulders are simple, the distance from one to another places the trio in a disadvantage. However, the air disturbance and the enemy's amateur sniping might give them a slight edge. After covering Lacus with his cloak, Kira signals for them to switch cover and spread out.

As expected, the enemy opens fire but horribly misses. Kira arms the .43 cal and loads the 1.29 mm magazine clip, his custom ammo; as Rusty and Faye jump for another cover that places them closer, even only a few steps, to the enemy's position. By this time, Kira's starting to feel the chill penetrating his bones and numbing his fingers. He glances briefly over to Lacus behind the boulder beside him before dropping on the ice and aiming his scope.

"Three bogeys dead ahead. 30 paces and closing" Faye hand signaled Kira.

"10 paces, grenades, open fire" he signaled back.

Rusty and Faye, who are leaning back and facing him, nodded as both of them readies their frags. Although he has one heat signature locked in his cross-hairs, he dares not fire for fear of giving their position if he misses because of the wind factor.

"Guys? Are they dead? I don't see any orange thingy" Crot nervously said.

"Keep your eyes open. They are not dead until they are" Orga replied.

"Idiots" muttered Shani.

Suddenly, their eyes grow wide upon seeing 4 grenades being chucked at their direction. Crot cursed as the three leaps. Right after the explosion, they were blessed with showers of bullets. Kira knocks off Orga's sniper rifle, Faye shot Shani's right arm and Rusty makes Crot scram like a terrified cat. As the three runs for cover, it's time for the operatives to advance. Faye and Rusty reload their weapons while Kira switches to his assault rifle. Suddenly, a rifle springs out of one of the trees, followed by covering fire from two directions. Faye was caught up by the covering fire that she didn't pay attention to the rifle in the air. Rusty tries to warn her, but Shani has already jumped out and rains Faye with metal. Several bullets hit her upper body while 2 puncture her left leg, dropping her off balance.

"Faye!" Kira shouted as he fires on Shani, while Rusty throws a couple more frags to suppress the other 2.

This time, Orga and Crot returns the grenade favor and forces Kira and Rusty down behind cover. Almost immediately, however, Kira jumps back out, and opens fire, hitting Crot on the right shoulder, but not without getting the right side of his abdomen and his left shoulder shot up. Rusty took the chance during the pause between the exchanges of wounds to disable Orga's right foot. He then rushes to Kira's bloody figure, and is about to say something when Kira grabs his arm and said, "Get Faye and get out of here. I will cover for you. Come back with help later"

"But-"

"At least one of us is alive. I will be alright. Go!" he pushes him towards the unconscious girl.

With Kira giving him covering fire, Rusty grabs Faye, throws her over his shoulder and latches on his snowboard before making his escape. He sees Kira nodding at him for a split-second before bullets embed themselves inside the brown-hair. Rusty gasped seeing Kira collapse that he lost focus and almost rammed into a tree.

"Ha, ha, ouch," Crot groaned in pain of his shoulder, "look at him go. Coward!"

Shani and Orga ignored him and limp towards Kira's blood-spattered mess. Orga kicks the motionless body a few times to confirm his death. Shani, on the other hand, walks around to find Lacus. Suddenly, beeping in their helmets causes them to jump. A crackled voice of a man then instructs them to return. Meanwhile, Shani manages to find the peculiar looking white lump behind a boulder. He was about to fire at it when metal come showering his way. Following his dodges, three heads snaps towards the firing source.

"Wha, what is he? Monster?" Orga asked in surprise, looking at the brown-hair's standing posture.

Shani persists in shooting Lacus, but is again deterred by Kira who after running out of ammo dashes towards him. Shani stand rooted to the snow in shock as Kira closes in on him like a phantom. He draws his knife, but is suddenly petrified upon looking at Kira's dilated violet eyes, therefore getting himself thrown a few feet across the snow. Kira pursued him, but Orga cuts his path by firing his rifle.

"Let's go, Shani! We have to order to return" Orga shouted as he and Crot retreat into the heavy snowfall.

Kira's pained face looks on as Shani reluctantly runs off. Then, without warning, the former drops to his knees and slumps face down onto the ice beside where Lacus is, with his left hand touching hers.

Meanwhile, back down in the valley, the enemy has been alerted of hostile action. Since the infiltration of the first of ZAFT's and ORB's commando units, the area in and around the 4 transport planes is full of activity. All the fuss, however, provides excellent cover for Athrun and co. Their no-casualty objective has also been achieved since the responsibility is transferred to ZAFT and ORB right after the rescue teams commences their sweep.

As Arnold, Julie and Athrun round the north of the center of the valley to join up with Ahmed's team, a thermal scope tracks their movement. Then, one shot…two…three…Time seems to slow down to bullet time as Athrun notices Julie and Arnold collapse before feeling a sharp pain on his right shoulder just inches from his neck, and being propelled a few feet backwards onto the snow. Struggling to get up, he sees them trying to recover themselves until two more shots keep them down for eternity. He freezes in shock for a second before snapping out and leaping towards the crate-filled area nearby to evade another streaking bullet skewering past his left ear. However, the spot he lands is so soft that his legs sink a few inches down, tripping him.

The person behind the scope, still keeping a full view of him, grins as he perceives Athrun's disadvantage and prepares his trembling finger to pull the trigger. Suddenly, a bright flash of light from his target's position critically blinds him due to infrared emission of flashbang, causing all the swear words known to mankind to escape his mouth. As Athrun gets up and feeling a hand on his injured shoulder, he tenses and swiftly turns to retaliate until Nicol calls his name.

"Come on. Let's go!" Nicol said, leading the other towards an overturned jeep, which is a short distance away from a nearby firefight.

"Arnold…and Julie…they are down" Athrun forced out as he leans back toward the side of the jeep and clutching his injury before suddenly noticing a figure beside him lying down motionless, "Cagalli?" Worry suddenly fills his heart.

"Ahmed and Edward too, but Athha is still alive, grazed skull," Nicol said before showing him a bullet casing, to which the other gasped, "1.29 mm. Custom .43 cal"

"Only…one person I know can use that perfectly" he said, to which Nicol agrees.

Miguel, unable to track his target, abruptly let go of the rifle, and groans in pain while holding on to his very sore right arm and shoulder, caused by the unusual recoil of the rifle and trigger, and abnormal vibration of the main chamber after firing.

"Damn him! Whatever made him make me use this blasted contraption? I can kill them all the same with other rifles!"

He tends to his bruised body part before reloading the rifle with a pained grunt and resuming his search.

Azreal panics as the cabin vibrates in response to an explosion outside. He keeps pacing to and fro in front of the monitors while periodically checking his watch.

"Where's that girl?" he immediately asked a soldier who just entered the cabin.

"uh…we lost contact with the guys responsible"

"Then find her!"

"There are squads of commandos covering the area, so-"

"Think, you dumbass! What are those tanks for? What are those Mobile Suits for? Display?"

"But you ordered them on standby until further orders from you" retorted the soldier which fumbles Azrael as he barks, "then, then, order them to launch immediately!"

"What are you thinking? There are innocent students around!" shouted Natarle.

Hearing this, he snaps, pulls out a gun from his suit and shoots her on the chest. The other staff members gasp in shock; but Flaga, enraged, jumps up, dashes towards the distracted Azrael and swings the chair on his back, knocking the short-fused nutcase down, and his gun away. He was about to stomp the chair on him when another soldier, who just walks in, shot him on the side of the abdomen.

"Nice try, but you failed" Azreal said as he picks himself up and starts kicking Flaga like coward.

The soldier then whispers to his ear, to which Azreal's face lightens up as he said, "Good, now we can move on! Spread the word, we are retreating," he then switches back his hostages. "Well, ladies and gentlemen, I'm would love to accompany you longer but something came up. Hope you have a nice stay"

Although most of the staff isn't familiar with military affairs, they could discern that Azreal had initiated a countdown to self-destruct before he left. It reads '300 sec' and counting, prompting them to struggle to escape.

Her blue eyes open to the cold greeting of snow gale even though her body contradicts it. Feeling a weight on her left hand and looking in the direction, she caught sight of a red-colored figure. She gasps when her eyes focus on the figure, but her dry throat prevents her from calling his name. She can only pull herself to him and whisper into his ear. However, his cold body didn't react in any way whatsoever. Tears start to escape her eyes and freeze on her cheek. She stays there beside him, clutching onto his red uniform, and praying. She is about to pass out again when a voice says, "Ms. Lacus"

"Save him, please" was all she could reply before blacking out.

"That's the signal flare. Our time is up" Nicol said in response to a faint yellow light to the east.

Athrun could only nod as the loss of blood weakens him rapidly although the wound has been covered. They, and 3 ORB commandos who had joined them, have not moved for 2 minutes as weapons exchange suppresses them down, especially the rouge sniper who almost got Nicol when he sticks his helmet out.

Amidst vibrations caused by MSs' steps, one of the commandos informs Nicol and Athrun that they will be retreating as the main force will be taking over the battle. Nicol helps Athrun up while one of the commandos grabs Cagalli. The moment they dash out of the cover; one of the commandos, who is providing cover fire, is sniped in the leg. Drastic things happen rapidly over the next minute; Nicol received a bullet to the head, and a rather massive explosion from the location of 4 transport planes sent a Strike Dagger careening towards their position. The commando who carries Cagalli, knowing that he cannot evade his doom, throws Cagalli out of the way, before he and the other two are crushed underneath it. Athrun and Nicol barely missed getting crushed as they were ahead of the group.

Further snipe shots forces Athrun to jump behind the MS's cover. As he is familiar with the .43 cal, he estimates the last shot of the magazine before pulling Cagalli back. He pauses for a moment to look around for a means to escape when it surfaces conveniently in front of him. He then reaches for Nicol's equipment pack, tosses the last flashbang above him, and jumps into the cockpit while carrying Cagalli over his left shoulder.

All DARTH operatives have been trained in MS usage, and since it is one of his strengths, Athrun quickly activates the MS. However, as he moves the MS up, 3 MS-sized shadows loom in front of him. Of course, being disguised as one of the enemy, the 3 MSs do not attack him. All of the sudden, they open fire toward him. Athrun grits his teeth in anticipation. However, the shots were not intended for him, but for the ZAFT and ORB units approaching from behind. He manages to distinguish certain characteristics from the 3; one has a scythe, one has a spiked ball, and the last has a twin blaster.

One of the flaming GINNs was shot in such a way that its projected crash area is the top of the cliff where a person is. Miguel watches stunned as the ball of fire come crashing his way. Then, the explosion triggers a small avalanche. Athrun takes advantage of the situation and leaves for the extraction zone within ORB's temporary territory, although he receives friendly fire until he manages to ID himself. Immediately after landing, he passes out bushed, with the blonde-haired girl on his lap and her head on his left shoulder.

A/N:…uh…uh…I will be glad if anyone still reads this. I apologize for not updating in a while. School before summer is wacko. Lots of projects, school officer responsibility, and especially finals. Same with you guys right? Thank goodness most of them are done with. Therefore I should be able to write more frequently now. Thanks for your reviews in advance…if any. Hope the story isn't strange.