On Earth, at the secret compound in one of the facilities there was a special division that needed a special clearance. Inside this facility had rows of capsules to grow Ultimate Coordinators. Ra was in his new uniform with a cameraman following him.

"This facility will be the home of Ultimate Coordinators," he explained. "Allegedly there is only one but that's up for interpretation as the rest are considered 'failed.' As you know there is a problem amongst Third Generation Coordinators. There isn't much of them. Second Generation Coordinators are deemed too genetically different. Siegel Clyne wanted to intermix with Naturals and Coordinators to diversify genetics. Patrick Zala wanted to continue genetic manipulation. I have similar thoughts to Zala. Why must Coordinators, who were evolved with genetic modification, intermix with the weaker part of our species?" He walked a short distance to a small cluster of capsules that were in use already. "These here are to become the children of lineages who held power in this genetic war." He waved to the first two which looked like to have nothing in them except liquid. "Children of Canard Pars, allegedly failed Ultimate Coordinator, and Cagalli Hibiki, the daughter of the famous Dr. Ulen Hibiki, father of Ultimate Coordinators which this facility is designed from. The children are both Coordinators, a boy and a girl." He walked towards another cluster that has not been used. It was different from the others as it had gold and silver coloring. "These will be for my own children. The moon has yet to be captured but when it will." He looked back to the camera with a smile. "What I need from you now is to persuade those who were once on our side to come back. If they don't want to come to our side, then regard them as the enemy and destroy them. We want to further evolve into supreme beings. We cannot be held back by those who are close minded and unable to see the bigger picture."

The cameraman nodded to him, letting him know he stopped recording. Ra and him relaxed a bit.

"Take it over to the editing room, get it ready to send out once I have approved of it," Ra ordered. The cameraman nodded once before leaving. Ra touched the capsule tanks. He headed over to the other two tanks that weren't named off. They had liquid in them. "This time our predecessor would be proud of you. Your 'genetic imperfections' have been cleaned up. That woman may not be up to his standard, he had high ones at that, but I think he would approve. Two lovely Coordinators, a boy and a girl just for you. I wonder what you will think when I give you siblings." He started to laugh out loud to himself. Things were going his way. It was all coming together.

On the PLANTs, Lacus was in meetings about the newest enemy. The video from Shinn's mobile suit was played for the Supreme Council. The Minerva was back in ZAFT territory, being restocked. Lacus was not liking this. The emergence of this enemy would mean that it would come to another possible war. She was doing all she could to not make that happen again.

That evening, Terminal held another secret meeting. Lacus, Kira, Yzak, Dearka, and on the screens were Mu, Athrun, and Andrew. The video was played with a closeup of the pilot of the red ZAKU.

"According to the pilots on the Minerva," Lacus explained further. "They believe that the man piloting the red ZAKU is a clone. The only clones we know of are Rau Le Creuset and Rey Za Burrel. I have gathered all of us in Terminal who had close ties to them. Do you believe we are facing another clone?" There were pictures of the mysterious pilot along with pictures of Rey and Rau for comparison.

"Wouldn't put it past me that there would be another clone of my father," Mu answered first.

"But we can't rule out that he could be a guy who was made to look like a clone," Dearka countered. "There was the fake Lacus." He jerked to Lacus. "My apologies. I mean the fake Supreme Council Chairwoman."

Lacus gave him a soft smile. "You don't have to have formalities here, but thank you though." Dearka nodded.

"Same length of hair, similar mask," Athrun was noting the details out loud. "Same arrogance of not wanting to wear a pilot suit while piloting a mobile armor."

Andrew was still trying to piece everything together. A possible clone, huh? He thought to himself. While the group was discussing on if that person was a clone, he tried to go through his mind on clues of the past to help him in the present. His mind kept going to a particular memory. He kept ignoring but finally decided to reminisce.

It was when he was stationed in PLANT-allied African Community, headquartered at Banadiya. He had been visited by His Highness, Prince Sven. He had gotten to know the prince back on the PLANTs when Andrew had to be there for certain meetings. The young prince learned he used to be an advertising psychologist. Sven, who had similar interests, grew attached to him within the first meeting.

The prince grew on Andrew too. Both had deep conversations about life, culture, humanity, and everything else they could think of. They would play all sorts of games against one another to see who could win and be the better tactician. Sometimes Sven would visit Andrew on Earth. It was the last time Andrew saw him in person. The two were in separate simulators battling against one another, seeing who could sneak up on the other and take them out before they noticed.

"Want to take it up a notch?" Sven leaned out. The two simulators faced one another, that way they wouldn't be able to cheat.

Andrew still remembered how he looked. His pink hair which had some curls to it was parted on one side and combed over. Making him look like the snobby prince he was. He never really wore his royal attire but his civilian clothes gave way that they were designer. Making him more like a rich kid.

"You have been holding out on me?" Andrew liked the challenge. He knew that this kid was young, but he had the same tactical ability as an old general. Andrew always liked going against him. It made him feel like he was exercising his mind.

"Alright, don't say I didn't warn you," Sven gave him a cheeky grin before returning back to his chair.

Andrew scoffed. He wanted to see what he had hiding up his sleeves. Not even a full minute into the simulation, Andrew failed. His screen flashed red; his chair vibrated indicating that if this was real, he would have been dead. Andrew froze. That couldn't be? Under a minute and he was already taken down.

"Would you like to try again?" Sven's voice called out in a mocking manner.

"You've been holding back on me, haven't you?" Andrew was up for the challenge. Same time later, under a minute, same reaction. Andrew couldn't believe it. This little snob had been holding out on him.

"Let's make it easier for you," Sven called out again. "You stay in the BuCUE and this side will be switched to something else."

Andrew lost again at the same speed. "What were you this time?!"

"A ZuOOT," Sven called out. Andrew let out a disappointing sigh. "Try it again." Andrew could hear him chuckle.

The screen turned red and the chair vibrated. "Alright, I give up!" He leaned on the controls. "What did you take me down in this time?" He couldn't believe Sven had been holding out on him.

"No, no, no, no," Sven held in his laughter. "One more time, please I swear!"

Andrew let out sigh. He leaned up. "Alright, but this is the last time." He started up the game once more. He tried really hard this time but he lasted at least far longer than a minute. He could have lasted longer until Sven distracted him.

Sven had come over to watch him battle on the simulator. "Wow, you can't tell where she is at all."

"Huh?" Andrew looked to see Sven staring at the screen. Andrew quickly looked back at the screen just in time to see the screen flash red and his chair vibrate. "If-if you're here then who am I playing against? What did I lose against?"

"She played the smallest she could which was a tank," Sven was thinking about it. "Yeah, that's the smallest it could get down to, a tank."

Andrew gaped. "I got taken down by a mere tank!? Who is that person?" He jumped up from the seat. Sven walked over with him.

Andrew saw a young gal the same age as Sven. She was also in civilian clothes and had the same pink curly hair. Her eyes seemed to be focused in on something. Sven spoke to one of his attendants. They nodded before giving a sketchpad and a pencil case to her. Her eyes came back to normal. She took the two items, got off her seat, and headed to a better place to view the mobile armors in the hangers.

"Meet my twin sister, Princess Selena," Sven beamed. "She's not really supposed to be here." Sven gave him a look. Andrew was still in shock. "She's supposed to be headed back home after she came down from the PLANTs, but I may have taken her on a side quest. She was really sad to leave PLANTs. Thought I could cheer her up." Andrew gave him a look of disappointment. Sven sometimes was too curious for his own good. "I also wanted to see how she was fairing. You're an admirable tactician, I needed to see how she could measure up. She goes beyond my calculations."

"What happened to her, she was so focused in?" Andrew watched her sketch away while staring at the mobile armors. He noticed she never looked down once.

"Heard of Berserkers?" Sven looked up to him. Andrew nodded. "Not my favorite allegory but it comes close. Still developing on a better name. I mean she's not wearing a bear pelt while she's like that."

"Why is she like that?" Andrew had been curious about Sven. He knew about Combat Coordinators and wondered if they were something similar.

"We all have our own enemies," Sven answered vaguely as he could. "I know what you're thinking, we could be tools for this war, and we all have ties to ZAFT and PLANTs."

"That's right, you do," Andrew nodded in agreement while thinking. "So, she's the one with that Rau Le Creuset guy. I thought they were talking about Siegel's daughter but this is probably who they meant."

Sven grimaced. Andrew picked up on it. "I'm not fond of him or Rey." Andrew didn't know who Rey was at the time. "It's weird to me that a mongoose would be friends with cobras." Sven liked stories, the more interesting they were, the better. He would read all sorts, especially fairytale types. "In the end, no matter if the cobra loses its fangs, a mongoose cannot go against the nature of life."

"Andrew?"

"An-drew?"

"ANDREW!?"

"Huh, oh sorry," Andrew saw that all of their attention was on him.

"You were mumbling something about mongooses and cobras," Mu, who was sitting close to him, helped him back to reality. The two had their own computer but was in the same room. Athrun was in a different place at the time.

Andrew stared at him for a bit before turning back to the screen to view the rest. "You wanted to know if this guy was a clone or not, right?" The group nodded their heads in unison. "Well, Mu and I will figure out that one together." He gave them a bright smile.

"Huh? What!" Mu was surprised he was getting dragged into this. Lacus left that detail up to the two of them before going on about logistics of the enemy from the recent battle.

After the meeting, Mu turned to Andrew. "What do you mean the two of us will figure it out?"

Andrew smirked. "Didn't you tell me one time that you thought could sense," he raised his eyebrows. "Rey Za Burrel when you were Neo?"

"It felt more like a hunch," Mu shrugged.

"Did you have the same sense when fighting against Rau?" Andrew tilted his head.

Mu thought about it for a few moments. "Yeah, I guess you could say I did. There was something like that."

"Aha!" Andrew beamed. "If what I am thinking is correct, which is plausible given everything, then we're dealing with an extraordinary enemy, but we need evidence to prove that. So, you're my cobra."

"What?!" Mu was taken aback. "Cobra?! What does that even mean?"

"You're a cobra, that's just what you are," Andrew explained turned back to the computer. "I need a cobra to sniff out other cobras, because if I get the mongoose to do that, all the cobras will die. Can't let the mongoose have all the fun."

Mu didn't know what to think of him. "The mon-goose? Wait, then who's the mongoose?" Andrew started to use the computer to get coordinates. "Who's the mongoose?"

"The mongoose has been friends with cobras since they were a little mongoose," Andrew explained which didn't help Mu at all. "Two cobras wanted to be friends with the mongoose. A baby cobra and an adult cobra, but these aren't just any cobras, these are King Cobras. You're a King Cobra. We're trying to see if this guy is a King Cobra. I say yes." He tapped on the key board. "Just need to prove it."

"You lost me," Mu sighed. When Andrew gets into his talks about metaphors and rabbit holes of ideologies, it just confuses those around him.

"Here," Andrew pointed to the screen. "We will prepare for a quick trip and see if we can sniff out a King Cobra."

"We're really going?" Mu could see the name of a few towns near the area where the beam came from that hit Princess Selena's vessel. "Let me guess, we're going as tourists?"

"Bingo!" Andrew exaggerated his blink. That was one of the many down sides to having one eye, he couldn't wink anymore.

Meanwhile at a recording studio, Setona was inside the studio singing her verse for their upcoming duet. Gatlin was on the other side with the producers listening in. A messenger that went between Gatlin and Selena had brought a closed envelope. He handed it over to Gatlin while whispering something into his ear. He nodded to let the messenger go. Gatlin was curious as to what was in this think manilla envelope. He opened it up, grabbing out the first piece of paper. While he was reading, he felt his heart being squeezed. This was really happening. Those around him noticed that he was trying not to hunch his shoulders. Everyone paused. He turned to them after he was finished. He looked straight to Setona. She was curious on to what was happening. He had tears brimming. Gatlin sniffed to try to keep everything back. He clicked on the sound board. "Setona, I have the rest of the songs for your debut album. A-d-dear friend has allowed us to use them. Let's finish up with this one and it will be released later."

"We have two more verses and then it will be finished," Setona informed him.

"Good," he nodded letting out a breath. "The song that I will have you sing next; you will need to sing exactly how it is." He looked at the envelope still in his hands. "There's a copy of the song my friend sang. I'll need a break after this but you can learn it during that time. When I come back, we can go over it, okay?"

Setona nodded. She was concerned for her mentor. It almost felt like he had received terrible news, like someone had died. Gatlin clicked another button. He spoke with one of the producers. He handed him a USB that was in the envelope along with a folder containing music sheets. There were several folders and USBs in there. He took the rest of the folder with him to take his break.

Later, Setona found Gatlin shifting through different folders with music sheets in them. He had a glass of some hard liquor next to it. She sat down next to him. The song she listened to was beautiful but sad. She thought their duet was similar but this was such a sad song.

"Is everything okay?" She placed a hand on his shoulder. "Did something happen? Did someone…"

Gatlin patted her hand on his shoulder. "Thank you." He didn't want her to finish that sentence because it was basically the truth. His dearest friend, a part of herself will die. She always spoke about her betrothed and how she resented it at times. She vented to him about her frustrations about why didn't she get to be like everyone else? Why couldn't she choose to marry the love of her life? Why couldn't she read fairytales? Why couldn't she be like other kids around her? When she got older, she told Gatlin that there would come a time when she would have to make peace with that side of herself. When she made peace, she was lowering that part of herself into a grave, and would have a mourning period. If not, she felt like her decision would haunt her.

It really was time for her to let go. Gatlin wiped his tears with a sleeve. "We will release it on the radio. It's up to you if you want to make a music video of it. She only asked for it to be released soon."

"Let's see how the people will react to it," Setona knew who the dear friend was after listening to the song. "I'll get working on it now."

A week later, Mu and Andrew were making their way through the towns he had marked. Mu hadn't sensed anything as of yet but Andrew was enjoying the food and the culture.

"This isn't a vacation," Mu muttered to him. The two were in hats and sunglasses.

"Our disguise is tourists," Andrew hadn't been this happy in a while. "Tourists like to eat and enjoy the atmosphere. That's what we're here to do."

Thankfully in one of the towns, the two stumbled upon Miriallia. She was still around trying to get more information. She had Jess working with her. Mu and Andrew told her their plan. She agreed to help. She brought them over to where Jess was staying. The four came up with an idea to get Mu close enough to feel if he could 'sense' the enemy.

Mu and Miriallia would take her bike up to higher terrain. She had been trying to get a feel of how big this secret compound was. Andrew showed her a picture of the mysterious pilot. She felt like she had seen him before. She was still taking pictures of everything. Miriallia would upload them with Jess, 8 would see if he could find anything. She would make routine visits with Sai to see if there was anything new. Andrew stayed down with Jess to go through the pictures. He needed that evidence.

Miriallia stopped a few hundred feet before the top of the hill. The two snuck up to the top, keeping low to the ground. Mu took off his glasses. Miriallia had a clothe over her camera.

"This is my latest spot," she whispered. The two were laying on their stomachs. "I'm figuring the secret compound is over that way," she pointed with her finger. "But over here is like a hidden oasis. There's a cliff with a waterfall. On certain days, especially if its windy, you can see a house hidden deep in there. I've been waiting for the owner to come out. Down there." She pointed. "A rundown path. That means the owner likes to take nature walks. I've been waiting for them to take a walk."

Luckily, the owner did take a walk. Ra had changed out of his pristine uniform into blue jeans, a black shirt that had sleeve that went just below his elbow, a white zip up vest he had zipped up halfway, and he wore black sunglasses. He wanted to walk a bit, take in everything he owned. Reminding himself of how far he had come. When he got to a clearing, he felt a jolt. He looked up to where he thought he saw something.

Mu had seen him come out of the clearing. He sensed it. The same sensation when he felt with Rau and Rey. He pulled Miriallia down. The dirt and foliage hiding them. It was a lucky day for them indeed, as Ra had never felt that sensation before. He tried to make it happen again. He tried to think the same things, move the same way, but he could not recreate that weird sensation. It clouded his mind. He needed to know what that sensation was. Ra turned back around to jot down what had just happened. Ra looked at his watch on his wrist to take note of the time. It wasn't until an hour later that the two stirred. Mu peeked to see if the person was still there. They weren't.

"Let's get out of here," Mu didn't want to get caught up in something else. The two hurried back down the hillside to where Andrew and Jess where.

"So, anything?" Andrew was curious.

"You're right, he's a King Cobra," Mu was in still disbelief. There was another clone of his father out and about.

"King Cobra?" Jess and Miriallia both questioned at the same time.

Andrew made a fist. "I knew it!" He was excited he was right but not happy about it either. "Did you happen to get a picture of him?"

Miriallia forgot she had snapped a few before Mu pulled her away. She looked through the pictures. "Yes!" The three gathered around her. She had one clear shot of him in the sun, the rest were blurry.

"Send that to Lacus," Andrew ordered. "We'll get the copy from her. Now that we know for sure it's a clone, we can proceed on."

The group dispersed. Mu and Andrew said their goodbyes before leaving. There was still daylight out for them to travel back. Mu and Andrew traveled most of the way back by transit. Mu fell asleep while Andrew was taking in the scenery.

"I do hope that nice young lady with her son got to go where she wanted," an older lady was gossiping to another older lady.

She nodded in agreement. "She seemed so frail walking all that way." The two noticed Andrew. "My, dear doesn't he look."

"Mm-hm," the first one nodded this time. "Sir, are you looking for the nice young lady?"

"Huh?" Andrew looked over to them.

"There was a nice young lady traveling with a little boy, who kind of resembles you," she explained. "Are you looking for her?"

"Psst, didn't it seem like she was being chased," the other lady nudged her. "This could be her good for nothing husband."

Andrew glanced down. He looked over to the elderly ladies. "You must have mistaken me for someone else. My wife passed away a few years ago."

The elderly ladies felt so embarrassed. They apologized and tried to sooth him. He comforted them saying that it was okay. He really did miss Aisha. He had daydreams of having a family with her. That was all a distant memory. A future he couldn't hope to have anymore. He only hoped to keep living on and protect those around him.