Yay, I got five reviews really really quickly this time! That's good. So here's the next chappie.

Thank yous:
Merffles: Actually I haven't been thinking about a sequel...the thought never even crossed my mind, heh.
asucagainluv: I didn't update cuz I didn't have five reviews yet, but you reviewed so that was good!
RainPure and Spellcasterz: Yeah, she recovered fast...that's the problem. hint, hint The results of the battle are in this chappie!
ZGMF X-19A Infinite Justice: We'll see what happens when it happens...something tells me I'm going to be doing a lot of acting on instinct from here on out... Why am I rambling?

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed, just Rin and the Harmony. Five reviews till I update please!

CHAPTER TWENTY – THE FINAL STAGE PART 2

It was all over for one of them in a single swift stroke of a beam sabre. When Rin looked back after hearing the satisfactory explosion that told her she had succeeded, she realized that it was Orga who had perished, for the Calamity was nowhere to be seen and the Raider was still there. She had received a minor scratch on her machine, but nothing to worry about.

"Another one bites the dust," she teased, just to get Clotho pumped. Not that she took pride in all of this killing – she did it because it had to be done. And not that killing was a good choice, but Kira had said something to her and Athrun once, something that really made sense as to why sometimes they had no choice but to fight: in order to protect.

"Rin, I'll kill you!" Clotho roared, charging her with his chain. Rin caught it before the spike at the end could hit her and twirled it back at him. It hit the Raider dead-on in the stomach, and it lost its orientation for a moment. Then she seized her opportunity and zoomed up-close to kick him.

"Why did you ever agree to serve Azrael?" Rin demanded, kicking him once more before he could recover. "Why would you even want to?" She quickly fired a beam, blasting one of the feet in light of its current low defence, mainly due to Clotho's lack of control.

Clotho suddenly regained control of his machine and fired a beam from the belly of the Raider, hitting the Harmony dead-on in the shield – she'd been able to bring it up just in time.

That was close, she thought with a little pant. Too close for comfort. He almost got me there.

"You wanna know why?" he demanded loudly, and suddenly he was laughing – laughing as if he was having the time of his life. Rin stared at him with wide eyes. "Because it's just like a video game, that's why!"

Those last words caught Rin completely off guard, and before she could react, Clotho took advantage ofthis cease-fireand kneed her hard and fired a beam right after without waiting for a reaction, blowing off the left leg of the Harmony.

"Video games are my hobby," Clotho continued, still laughing manically. And by the time he would finish his sentence, his voice would have risen to a high-pitched hysteric. "I never lose. So there's no way I can lose here! I fight to win! And I always win!"

Rin could not believe what she was hearing. Was Clotho really that naïve? "Don't you realize that your life is on the line here?" she yelled, promptly screaming again when Clotho kicked her, sending the Harmony flying backwards.

"Mine isn't!" Clotho stated, firing a beam at her control booth. She quickly brought up her shield and took the blow. A fragment ofthe shield wasblasted off. "Only the people who I'm fighting!"

"Are you really that stupid?" Rin argued back, unable to believe what he was saying. It was impossible. It couldn't be!"What if, while the two of us were fighting, someone hit you from behind and destroyed you?"

Clotho stopped laughing long enough to gasp. Then he regained his composure, but this time, he fought in a mad rage, completely lost to the world and all hopes of civilized communication.

"That'll never happen to me!" he roared. "Never!"

Rin knew instantly what was wrong with the way he was fighting as he charged her. He tried viciously to kill her, firing beams at every second and launching his chain over and over again and firing missiles whenever he could. It was all too easy to predict. He would run out of power soon, and his machine was being pushed so hard that it could deteriorate from the inside out. Rin had never actually heard of an instance when that happened, but she knew, what with the technology of mobile suits, that it could actually happen - the only reason it hadn't before was because no one was stupid enough to push their machine so hard.

In that moment when she realized what would happen, Rin realized that she didn't want to kill Clotho. She had never really wanted to. He was still a teenager. He knew fear now, but he was trying to put it all aside, which was what caused his crazy behaviour. He didn't want to die. He was trying with all his might to stay alive. He was desperate.

"Clotho, stop fighting!" Rin ordered, dodging Clotho's assaults but never retaliating. "I don't want to kill you. I won't fight against you if you surrender. I'll even take you to the Eternal. They got the drug out of my system. They can do it to you, too! You won't be bound to Azrael any longer!"

"No!" Clotho screeched. "You're lying! You're lying! You're gonna try and kill me! Traitor!"

"No, I'm not!" Rin tried to tell him, and she could feel tears of pity coming down. "Clotho, I want to help you! Let me help you and everything will be okay!"

"You're lying! I'll never quite until I win!" Then the legs of the Raider blasted off from the inside, causing Clotho to lose it even more and fight even harder. He smashed off the remainder of the Harmony's legs. "You're trying to kill me!" he yelled as one of his arms blasted off.

"NO!" cried Rin, struggling to maintain control of her beaten machine, but things were not looking good. Too much damage and she would lose control completely. "Clotho, you're the one destroying yourself! You have to stop it now or you'll die! Please, just listen to me!"

But Clotho just wouldn't listen. "Now you die!" he screamed, and fired a large super-charged beam straight at her.

Rin hurried with the controls, but her machine was in such bad shape that it didn't have the speed to match her fingers along the controls and dodge in time. She looked on in terror at the beam coming her way, her heart caught up in her throat.

"AAAAAAAAAAIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

But the blow never hit. Rin looked to see a familiar mobile suit in front of her, having just blocked the beam with its shield.

The Duel.

Yzak!

"Yzak?" she asked incredulously, not believing what she was seeing.

"Hmph," he answered, and she recognized his voice right away. "Now help me take this guy!"

Yzak charged for Clotho.

"No, wait!" Rin cried instantly, trying to move her machine forwards in protest. "He's innocent. Don't kill him!"

Yzak didn't even stop, just fired at Clotho, who fired back, and their attacks met in the middle, triggering an explosion.

"Why shouldn't I kill him?" Yzak demanded angrily, as if she had lost her mind. "He's trying to kill us!"

"He doesn't realize what he's doing!" Rin tried to explain. "Just capture him and take him to the Eternal instead!"

Clotho fired an enormous beam, blasting the shoulder of the Duel, and the arms of the Raider promptly blew up. He screamed.

"What is he doing?" Yzak asked incredulously, ceasing fire for the moment.

"He's going to blow himself up!" Rin yelled desperately. "You have to help him!" She focused on Clotho. "Clotho, please stop fighting. Let us help you! Trust me!"

But Clotho had lost all hopes of control of his machine. With a giant shriek, he firedone lastbeam and his machine exploded.

"Clotho!" Rin cried out, but she knew it was too late for her to do anything. It had always been too late to help him.

Yzak shook his head. "Crazy," he muttered.

"I know," Rin said sadly, but she shook herself over surprisingly quickly. "Hey, thanks for the help, Yzak."

"Yzak! Rin!" came an exhausted cry through the communicator. Yzak and Rin turned to see the Buster headed their way, severely damaged. The phase shift armor was down, its legs had been blasted off along with an arm and part of the opposite shoulder, and the head was gone.

"Dearka!" Yzak cried out in shock.

Rin was shocked as well. "Dearka!" she exclaimed. "What happened to you? Who did that to you?"

"I don't know," Dearka replied, moving slowly towards them – his machine was completely out of steam. "I've never seen it before. It was…" but he couldn't continue. Rin saw on the screen that he had a terrible wound to his head, and he was bleeding.

Rin knew what had to be done. "Yzak, take Dearka to the Archangel for medical assistance. I'm going to find that mystery machine."

"No way!" Yzak argued. "You take him back. Your machine needs to be repaired more than mine does. I'll take on that guy."

"Just listen to me!" Rin ordered sharply, and took off, leaving Yzak with no choice on the matter.

As she flew, her hands darted across the Harmony's keyboard. She had to preserve as much as her machine as she could. It had already sustained enough damage. But half of it was easily fixable. She had to fix as much of it as she could, or –

"Rin, get out of the way!" yelled Mu's easily recognizable voice, but Rin had no time to register the urgency of it.

Rin looked just in time to see a large beam headed straight for her. With barely any time to react, she flipped to the side, justmissing it by inches. She looked to see where it had come from.

The Dominion!

She quickly looked to see where it was aiming. Her heart lurched.

The Archangel!

"NO!" she cried, and then the beam exploded. Rin zoomed in on her screen to see why it had stopped before hitting the Archangel.

There was a machine there, trying to block the beam. Rin was able to identify it just before it exploded.

The Strike.

Mu.

The first Archangel member Rin had ever met. He had been very kind to her, as well. She liked him very much.

And now he was gone. All because of –

"AZRAEL!" Rin raged. Instantly she readied her strongest beam, and fired, at the same time the Archangel did.

The Dominion was destroyed in an enormous explosion and blasts of light.

"That was for all the trouble you put me through," Rin muttered, tears leaking down because she had lost a comrade. Her vision swayed a little, but not because of the tears.

Then another thought struck her. Where was that mystery machine Dearka spoke of? She had to find it!

As she zoomed away from the Archangel, she saw that Yzak was close behind her, bringing Dearka to safety. Good, she thought, and continued on, closer towards the PLANTS.

It was there that she ran into Athrun and Cagalli piloting the Strike Rouge.

"Rin!" exclaimed Cagalli.

"Are you okay?" asked Athrun, noting the damage to her machine immediately.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she muttered. She asked them about the mystery machine, but none of them had seen it.

Athrun briefed her on more of the details. The Kusanagi and the Eternal had used all of their strength trying to destroy GENESIS, but it had not worked. "We're going to get it from the inside out," he explained.

Rin instantly put the mystery machine aside. "Right, I'm coming too."

And the three of them set out for Jachin Due. Rin's heart was filled with hope. If they could get rid of GENESIS, then the war would be over.

And no one else would die.

She was too anxious of what was to come to notice that her vision had blurred at the edges.