I don't own anything except Ken DiFalco, his team, and Sophia DiFalco
Mendel Colony, Secondary Harbor, July 12th, C.E. 71
Two mobile suits flew swiftly through the harbor that lay on the opposite side of the Mendel Colony from where True ZAFT had set up their base camp. They had come alone, without any backup... because both pilots sensed something familiar... unpleasantly so.
"Rau Le Creuset," Mu muttered to himself, in Strike's cockpit. "Are we ever gonna be rid of that guy? He always turns up at the most inconvenient times..."
"Not for much longer," Ken replied, voice grim. "This time, he's not getting away. I'll make sure of that."
"You'll have to take a number; I owe him for causing me so much trouble, ever since Endymion."
"You weren't the only one to come off badly at Endymion because of Rau, Mu," the ace said sharply. "We'll do it together, how's that?"
"Sounds good to me," Mu agreed. "Of course, first we have to find him."
"Agreed... Wait." Ken's eyes narrowed, as his detection systems noted incoming units. "Two heat sources detected," he said tersely. "One matches a GuAIZ; the other..." He stiffened. "Mu, that signature looks like the Freedom."
Mu's eyes narrowed. "You're right; same basic frame... but there's something different about it." The machines were coming into visual range now, and one of them was indeed a GuAIZ, painted pure white; obviously a commander's model. The other...
It had the same basic frame as the Freedom, but the phase-shift had been changed to an overall black color; and where the Freedom was intended as a long-range interceptor, this was obviously more oriented toward close combat. It retained the shoulder-mounted plasma cannons, hip-mounted rail cannons, and Lacerta beam sabers, but it had no rifle. Where the Lupus would've been kept was a sheath, containing a purely physical blade... a blade which Ken recognized.
"I know that weapon," he hissed to Mu, and switched to a ZAFT frequency. "Is that you, Victor? I can't think of anyone else who could possibly have a weapon like that."
Low laughter came back over the radio. "Hello, Falcon. I'd hoped you'd come to see me. Shall we finish what we started?"
Instead of answering directly, Ken glanced at the Strike. "Mu, I've changed my mind. Go get Rau; I've got an even more personal battle to fight."
"Roger that," Mu agreed, with a smile that contained no humor at all. "Cut him to ribbons; I've got Le Creuset."
Strike boosted away, and Preybird faced off against the modified Freedom. "All right, Victor," Ken said coldly. "You want to fight? Let's fight."
Tempest smiled. "Great, Falcon... just great. Come and get me... and no more holding back! I don't want you disabling me like you have every other time we've fought."
"Don't worry. I've had it with you, Victor; it's time to finish what we started. This time..." Preybird's hand went to its left hip, and snatched out the Gerbera Straight. "...It will be to the death!"
Tempest drew his own version of the Gerbera Straight -a blade of darker metal, shot through with blue as though made of Damascene steel- and rushed to meet Preybird.
The clash of swords echoed...
Mu La Flaga put all thoughts of the impending duel between master and pupil out of his mind, and he closed in on Rau Le Creuset. You've been an irritant for too long, Le Creuset, he thought grimly. Today's the day I take you down for good.
Within the white GuAIZ, Rau Le Creuset smiled to himself. I know this feeling... you're near, Mu. Ah, how wonderful... He raised an eyebrow, though, when he saw the mobile suit that awaited him. "Well, well," he called. "So you're the one piloting that machine now... Mu La Flaga!"
An emerald dart spat from the GuAIZ's beam rifle, forcing Strike to dodge to one side. "Don't think this'll end like last time, Le Creuset," Mu snarled. "You're not retreating like you did at Heliopolis. This time I'm going to take you down, you jackal!" His gunbarrels spiraled out, already spitting green death.
Le Creuset chuckled. "And just how were you thinking of going about that?" he asked, deftly maneuvering around the deadly rain of energy. "Don't forget, it took the Strike pilot himself to even disable me at Heliopolis; what good do you think you'll do?"
"Good enough!" Strike spun sideways, gunbarrels on full automatic fire, while he added his beam rifle's power to the mix.
Rau simply laughed, and interposed his machine's claw-equipped shield, the anti-beam coated surface spattering the bolts of energy harmlessly. "You'll have to do better than that, Mu," he said mockingly. "ZAFT's learned a lot from the weapons captured at Heliopolis, you know!" He opened fire with his GuAIZ's large rifle, spitting a burst of green fire back at the G-weapon.
Mu cursed when the beam impacted; despite his best efforts, it struck his upper-right gunbarrels, ripping through it and detonating it completely. As he spun the remaining three through an evasive pattern, he also drew in the line connecting his machine to the destroyed gunbarrel; leaving it free ran the risk of it becoming tangle, and severely impairing his machine's performance... or worse.
"I hope you don't think that'll stop me, Le Creuset!" he called, dodging another green blast. "That would've worked against a mobile armor, but I've got a lot more options now!"
"So prove it!" Le Creuset taunted, and spun away, racing toward another part of the harbor.
"I'm not letting you get away that easy," the Hawk hissed to himself, and took off in pursuit... totally unaware now of the battle unfolding nearby.
Blade clashed against blade, and Huckebein the Raven grinned. "Excellent, Falcon," he whispered. "A true battle at last! How does it feel to finally face an opponent whose machine can actually threaten your masterpiece?"
"I'd like it a lot better if you weren't threatening my mission," Ken grunted back, Preybird straining to press its blade forward. "You have no idea what you're doing, Victor; no idea at all of what I'm trying to do... what I'm trying to stop!"
"Au contraire," Tempest replied drawing back his weapons, and firing a burst of plasma from his Balaena cannons. "I know exactly what you're trying to do. It's GENESIS, isn't it?"
The ace inhaled sharply, as Preybird's light-wave barrier took the red-orange discharge. "You knew?"
"Didn't take a genius to figure it out," the masked pilot told him. "Just took someone who knew you, who remembered your theoretical work on interstellar engines... who remembered what gamma radiation could do, if ever it was focused properly." He dove back in, back slashing down.
Ken snorted, contemptuous... but his eye widened in surprise as the weapon ignored his light-wave defense completely, to glance off a phase-shift-protected arm. "How did you-"
Huckebein laughed. "So there is something the great Falcon of Grimaldi doesn't know, eh? Heh; nobody ever told you that something covered in anti-beam coating will go right through a light-wave barrier?" He laughed even louder. "Oh, the irony; the Falcon taken down not because he was stupid, but because he was ignorant!"
"I'm not dead yet, Huckebein," the ace hissed, sweeping in a circle strafe, lunging in for another slash. "I've still got a lot of life left in me; and besides, you've forgotten that even a Gerbera can't penetrate phase-shift."
"I've forgotten nothing," Tempest replied, catching the thrust on his own blade and diverting it. "Maybe I can't hurt your limbs with this- but I can still destroy your 'impenetrable' defense!"
Ken flung Preybird backwards, as he attempted to adjust for his error. Idiot! Birdbrain! This is what happens when you miss a variable! You of all people can't afford to be fallible!
Then he realized that misjudging the light-wave barrier's capabilities wasn't his only error. Fighting a phase-shift-equipped machine with a physical blade... that's not real smart, dummy... On the other hand, Victor's being just as dumb.
Huckebein blinked, seeing Preybird suddenly sheathe its Gerbera, draw a saber hilt from above the left rail cannon, and ignite the blade of frozen fire. "What are you doing, Falcon?" he questioned. "Afraid to face me sword-to-sword?"
"Not at all, Victor," Ken replied. "It's just that I suddenly realized I've been fighting in the wrong manner; I got too used to dealing with mass-produced cannon fodder." He drew back the saber, readying it for a backhand blow. "I think it's time we ended this, don't you?"
Tempest snarled, and with a speed that surprised the ace -given the limitations he himself had imposed on the original Freedom's design- slipped to one side, narrowly avoiding the slash. "You'll have to do better, Falcon," he told his former teacher, bringing his Gerbera flashing down. "An arthritic moose could've dodged that!"
"Your point?" Ken grimaced as the blow passed right through his defenses, but he accepted even the damaged incurred when the Gerbera cut into his light-wave projector, severing circuits, sending out fragments of debris, and completely shutting down the system... because it gave him an opening of his own.
The fiery blade came up again, and the modified Freedom's sword rose to meet it, in a mighty clash. But something unexpected was happening: as the bright energy sword struck the dark, blue-streaked metal, the Gerbera began to crack... and, even as Huckebein cried out in shock, the blade shattered completely. "What- How did you-!"
"You're a good pilot, Victor," Ken told him, boosting away from the falling fragments of beam-deflection sword, "but you forgot your limitations. Tom Delaney could've forged that metal into a deadly weapon, but a swordsmithyou are not. You tried to imitate your own blade on a massive scale; but not only did you fail to create a truly strong blade, you also forgot that anti-beam coating, while allowing the weapon to duel with a beam saber, would not save it from the kinetic energy. The weaknesses in your flawed weapon doomed it from the beginning."
"So what now, Falcon?" the half-mad ZAFT pilot asked, reaching for one of his own sabers. "How does it all end, eh?"
"Like this."
Before the modified Freedom's hand could reach the saber's hilt, Preybird rushed forward, and its blade of frozen fire drew a bright arc in the air...
Le Creuset noted the sudden disappearance of Tempest's signal with interest, but he didn't particularly care. If Falcon's finally managed to dispose of Huckebein, I won't shed any tears...
"Come back here, you jackal!" Mu shouted over the radio. "Or do you think I'm actually going to let you get away?"
"Oh, don't worry; I never thought anything of the sort." Rau smiled. "But you know, Mu, if you should happen to succeed in shooting me down, I daresay this place is an appropriate one. Wouldn't you agree, O Hawk of Endymion?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Mu shot back, finally getting into range to fire another barrage from his remaining gunbarrels. "And I don't care, either!"
The masked commander laughed. "What a pity, Mu; because it's actually quite a crime that you don't know. But don't worry; I'll make sure you know the truth before you die." Energy splattered against his shield, while other emerald darts streaked past him. "It's your right... to know the truth about your own family!" He triggered another blast of his own, and laughed again. "I certainly don't need to worry about you killing me before the story can be told; after all, the child cannot hope to defeat the parent!"
The Hawk froze for an instant. Child...? Parent...? What's this psycho ranting about now? The momentary hesitation was unfortunate... and damaging, as the GuAIZ's burst immolated another gunbarrel.
"Ha!" Le Creuset laughed. "See? You hesitate far too easily, Mu; yet more proof that you don't have what it takes to defeat me."
"Shut up, you bastard!" Mu twisted around, allowing yet another emerald beam strike his shield; then he cursed as a follow up grazed Strike's left arm, melting a groove and damaging the hydraulics. The limb fell limp, useless, and the shield dropped from unpowered fingers. "Don't think I'm going to give up now, Le Creuset! I'm just getting started!"
Le Creuset snorted in derision. "You've got no backup, Mu. Admit it; you're finished!"
"Never!" Strike's remaining gunbarrels deployed in a holding pattern, functioning as another layer of protection even as they fired; and the duel between rivals continued...
Archangel, Bridge
Though the battle was beginning to turn in the Archangel's favor, Murrue Ramius' face was drawn with worry. The Second Fleet was slowly being driven off or destroyed, Dominion hadn't even deigned to come into range, and the Earth Forces mobile suits were being decimated, with -so far- no losses to the True ZAFT forces... but two of their pilots remained unaccounted for.
"Any word yet on Ken or Mu?" she asked worriedly. "Have they reported in yet?"
Flay shook her head regretfully. "No, Captain; there's been no word from them since they entered the colony, and our signals aren't reaching to the harbor."
Natarle frowned. "That isn't good," she said slowly. "If they've run into something there that they can't handle, it could spell difficulties for us, as well." She hesitated. "And if Commander DiFalco decided his own capture was imminent, he may have..."
"Suicided?" Murrue's lips quirked. "Not by cyanide, if that's what you're worried about." With a slight smile, she reached into a pocket, and withdrew a small, glass capsule. "Leanne managed to appropriate this before the battle; if he wants to kill himself, he'll have to do it the hard way."
Mir blinked. "He, ah... may not be happy with you when he finds that out, Ma'am."
"I hope to get it back to him before he realizes its missing." The Captain sighed. "But that, of course, presupposes that he... he gets back here in one piece."
"He'll be fine, Captain," Cagalli reassured her, appearing on an armrest screen. "It'd take an army to bring down my partner; they're probably just busy."
Murrue nodded. "Yes... Yes, you're probably right. Thank you, Cagalli."
Outside Mendel Colony
Freedom flew a complicated corkscrew maneuver, weaving through another barrage from Calamity. You're not taking me down today! Kira thought, pausing to fire his full ranged armament at the Earth Forces machine. I won't let a murder like you have your way!
Nearby, Athrun tangled with the Forbidden, repeatedly parrying scythe attacks with his beam staff. "We can't keep this up, Kira," he said through gritted teeth. "There's just too many of them!"
"I know," Kira replied, voice grim; even as he spoke, an enormous discharge from Calamity's Scylla flashed past him, the corona of the beam scrambling his optics for an instant. "But we can't give up now; and if we can get these guys away, they'll at least have to regroup."
"Yeah," Justice's pilot agreed, "but the question is... how do we do that?"
"I don't know," his friend admitted. "I almost hate to say it, but I wish Ken was here. He wouldn't have much trouble with these guys..."
"Kira, look out!"
Dearka's frantic call cut through the conversation like a knife, and Kira's head snapped around as he suddenly realized he was surrounded. Calamity came at him from the front, while Raider -with Buster in pursuit- came from "above", and the remaining 105 Daggers swarmed him.
Athrun was still busy with Forbidden, and while Dearka's Death Blossoms forced Clotho's machine to weave madly, reducing accuracy greatly, there were still too many adversaries, all beginning to fire at once...
Behind Kira Yamato's eyes, an amethyst seed bounced and shattered.
Freedom's shield suddenly flung out, catching a dozen incoming beams and knocking a Dagger's head off as it passed, while the beam rifle was simply left to drift in space. Hands descended to the hilts of beam sabers, and twin blades of frozen flame flashed into life.
Orga, who had just been about to unleash the full fury of his ranged weapons, blinked in confusion, for his target was no longer clearly defined. Instead, Freedom had gone into a rapid spin, rotating so fast Calamity's targeting systems couldn't get a lock. "What the-!"
His exclamation was cut off abruptly, for the fiery circle that had surrounded Freedom once again resolved into twin swords of fire... which burned through both Calamity's arms, severing them completely, while Freedom's feet lashed out in a thruster-powered kick, forcing the machine backwards.
Kira used the resulting equal -and opposite- reaction to boost toward the 105 Daggers... which, quite abruptly, had something else to deal with.
"Leave him alone, you bastards!" Cagalli shouted, both of the IWSP's antiship swords flashing out. In her fury at the attack on her boyfriend, the Earth Alliance pilots didn't stand a chance; heads, limbs, and torsos all went flying away, leaving the machines to either drift, dead in space... or simply explode, literally dead in space.
At the same moment, Dearka finally managed to use the distraction to open fire with his beam rifle and all four Death Blossoms, reducing all of Raider's weapons to scrap and forcing Clotho to retreat.
Dominion, Bridge
Azrael stared, uncomprehending, at the sudden carnage that had erupted before his eyes. The Second Fleet had already taken a beating, thanks in large part to the traitorous Archangel, but this...
Admiral Hamilton, while equally stunned, was also a professional military man, however, and began barking orders within moments. "Fire signal flares," he ordered. "Message the Second Fleet to begin tactical withdrawal; rendezvous at Point Bravo."
The Director's head whipped around at those words. "Wait a minute, Admiral," he said sharply. "Are you suggesting we just give up?"
"No, Director," Hamilton said patiently, "I'm not. But we need to regroup before we make another attack; the losses to both our ships and our mobile suits have wrought havoc with the chain of command; if we continue the engagement under these circumstances, what little unit cohesion we have left will quickly dissolve entirely."
"I agree with Jim, Director," Kreitzman said heavily, from Independence. "We haven't lost yet, but we will if we don't withdraw for now."
Azrael opened his mouth to protest further, then closed it with a sigh. "Very well, then," he said at last. "I guess there's not much point in recruiting professional admirals if I don't listen to them; and from my dealings in the business world, I know what happens without a clear hierarchy." He nodded unhappily. "Go ahead with the withdrawal, Admiral... but we'll be back, and soon."
"Of course, Director," Hamilton agreed, and continued issuing instructions to the survivors.
Archangel, Bridge
"They're withdrawing, Captain," Natarle reported, and Murrue sank back into her chair with a sigh.
"That's good news," she said quietly. "I guess we were a little tougher than they expected... though I suppose they'll be back. Anyway, signal our own machines to return." The captain glanced back at Flay. "I don't suppose there's been any word yet from Mu, or Ken?"
The redhead shook her head. "Still nothing, Ma'am. There's been no contact since they reentered the colony."
Kira's face appeared on Murrue's right armrest screen. "I'd better go after them, Murrue," he said quietly. "This isn't like either of them; if Ken's late, he may be in trouble."
She looked at him. "Are you sure, Kira?"
"The Second Fleet is withdrawing," he pointed out. "After the losses we just inflicted, it'll take them hours to regroup. We need to find out what's going on at the other harbor, Murrue, while we still have time."
"He's right," Athrun put in. "I'll go, too."
"No," Kira said quickly. "We can't risk too much of our strength right now; if Mu and Ken are already in trouble, we can't afford to weaken ourselves even more."
"You sure?"
"Either it's something I can handle," he said unflinchingly, "or it's something bad enough that we can't risk losing even more of our machines." He looked out at Murrue again. "Please, Murrue; I need to go there."
She nodded slowly. "All right, Kira. I know Ken said he didn't want anyone attempting to rescue him, if he was captured; but we don't know if it's that bad yet, and he's always saying you never leave comrades behind. Go... and thank you."
Kira smiled. "No problem, Murrue."
The pilot's image disappeared, and Freedom turned away from the Archangel, arcing back toward the Mendel colony ahead of the ships.
Minutes later, Sophia arrived on the Bridge, still in her flightsuit, looking weary but hopeful. "Well, we've won this round," she said tiredly. "Looks like maybe we can win this thing after all." She raised an eyebrow. "By the way, I didn't see Freedom when I landed; where's Kira off to?"
"He's going to see what's keeping Ken and Mu," Murrue said, tone lighter than she felt. "Maybe they got lost, on their way to the other harbor..."
Sophia went white. "Did you say the other harbor?" she said hoarsely.
The captain blinked, puzzled by her friend's reaction. "Yes, why?"
The Kestrel swallowed. "Oh, man... if I'd known that's where they went, I'd have gone instead of Kira... Even Falcon should never have gone there..."
"What's wrong, Commander?" Natarle asked, concerned. "What is it about that place that has you worried; and why them, in particular?"
Sophia hung her head. "There are secrets there, in the dark corners of Mendel... things better left in the dust of the past, never brought to light. Things that Kira Yamato should never see... and maybe things Falcon shouldn't, either..."
"What are you talking about, Sophia?" Murrue demanded. "What's there, in Mendel?"
"A facility called GARM," the Kestrel whispered. "Genetic Advanced Reproductive Medical Research and Development. The place where Ulen Hibiki performed his twisted experiments... the place where Heinrich Metzinger learned the art of genetic engineering, and, together with Hibiki, created the artificial womb..." She looked up, meeting Murrue's eyes with a haunted look. "The place where Kira was born..."
Mendel Colony, Secondary Harbor
Sliced nearly in half by the fiery blade wielded by Preybird, Victor Tempest's Freedom Mk. II crashed to the ground, a sparking ruin of mangled armor and circuitry.
Within the cockpit, Huckebein the Raven coughed, as smoke from frying electronics drifted through his shattered helmet. Nice one... Falcon, he thought to himself. You almost... succeeded this time. But... since I'm still alive, I guess the final battle will be the same as the first... blade to blade...
Painfully, using muscles sore from the rough impact, the masked pilot unstrapped, and pulled himself to the mangled hatch.
Nearby, Preybird may a far more controlled landing, coming to rest on one knee about a hundred meters from the wreckage. Within moments, the machine's hatch opened, and Ken leapt lightly to the ground. A normal human would've come out of it with -at best- various sprains, and more probably broken legs, but his bioengineered muscles managed the landing with relative ease, though he still grunted from the impact.
The ace also felt something wrong within his chest; something with his breathing. He suspected the destruction of his primary light-wave barrier had sent feedback up through the power system, causing a minor surge in the connection between the generator and his prosthetics. My lung's not working quite right, he diagnosed. What wonderful timing...
Still, Ken ignored the infirmity; he had other things to worry about, and he drew Griever as he saw the modified Freedom's hatch open.
Tempest climbed painfully out, and set foot on the ground a precise ten meters from his former commander's position. "Hello, Falcon," he said quietly, the madness firmly held in check, by both drugs and sheer determination. He knew it wouldn't last long, but he had to do this... he had to talk to his teacher while he could.
"Victor," Ken acknowledged, and tilted his head. "You sound... different," he remarked. "Not exactly the ravings I've come to expect from you."
Huckebein inclined his head. "I know. And I don't think it'll last... but while it does, I have to tell you why."
"'Why' what?" the ace asked. "What's going on here, Raven?"
The masked pilot breathed deeply, fighting to maintain control. "I'm crazy, Falcon," he said at last, choosing his words with care. "I know it; my mind's been going for a long time now. The day, on the Grimaldi Front... the battle that made you decide to transfer me, that was the first time it took over. Then again... when I tried to kill you." He smiled slightly. "You couldn't know how glad I as that you managed to kill me, Falcon... or how furious I was when they brought me back."
"I don't understand," Ken said honestly.
"I'm too dangerous to let live, Falcon... Ken." Tempest touched the scar that came from under his mask, then tore the mask itself away. "I've become something I never wanted to be... and only the drugs are holding it in check right now. I... I don't have much time left," he went on, single eye meeting Ken's. "You never knew, but... I'm not like you, Ken. I'm a monster, something that has to be destroyed... and something with a built-in timer on my life. It wasn't how it was meant to be, but it's how it is." He paused, struggling for the right words, and then finally said it outright. "I'm a clone, Ken; a clone of a man who was already in his forties when I was created. My genes are vintage... and they're wearing out."
Ken stared in disbelief. "A clone?"
Huckebein nodded. "Yeah. I... I don't have time to explain it all; I can already feel it creeping up on me again, getting past the drugs..." He reached into a pocket of his flightsuit, withdrew a disc, and tossed it to his teacher. "When you get back to your ship, read that; it'll tell you everything."
The ace looked at the disc, then back at his wayward student. The story was difficult for him to believe -he had never trusted the words of madmen- and yet... He's telling the truth. I can see it in his eye... But what does he want me to do? Is that why he...?
He cleared his throat. "So, what now, Victor?"
Tempest drew his blade, named Requiem. "There's no choice, Ken," he said quietly. "You'll have to kill me. It's the only way... to set me free. And to set you free from my curse. If you don't strike me down now, I'll continue to come after you, whether the sane part of me wants to or not."
Griever slowly came up. "You know how this battle will end," Ken said quietly, not needing to point out that he'd taught the younger pilot swordplay in the first place. "Are you really willing to die?"
"Better death by sword than by organ degeneration," Huckebein pointed out sensibly. "Just remember one thing: however it is that you actually finish it, cut off my head before you leave. I... I don't want them to have any chance of resurrecting me again."
I've never heard anyone talk about his own impending death with such calm, Ken thought, considering his own response. I've never before thought about wanting to die... nor about what could drive a man to that, despite wanting to live a normal life...
"All right," Kenneth "Grimaldi Falcon" DiFalco said calmly. "Let's get this over with, Victor." Griever settled into a guard position, he opened his mouth... and uttered the inhuman ascending wail of the peregrine falcon's hunting call.
The running battle between Strike and the white GuAIZ had taken its toll on both machines; even Le Creuset's unit now sported several melted gashes from gazing hits. But Strike had born the brunt of it, and was now in serious danger of losing this fight.
And to a mass-produced unit, at that, Mu thought bitterly. Of all the... He was down to a single gunbarrel now, and his beam rifle had taken a slash from the GuAIZ's beam claws, when Le Creuset essayed a rushing attack. That left him with just one beam emitter in the gunbarrel, his CIWS, and the Armor Schneiders.
And, he thought, when he heard Le Creuset's chuckling come over the radio again, his cackling isn't helping...
This time, however, their battle was not the reason for the masked commander's amusement. "Look down there, Mu," he suggested, his machine's head briefly turning toward the distant ground. "It appears the Falcon and the Raven are about to have their final confrontation. Ha; I wonder who will win this time? At Grimaldi, Falcon did severe damage to Huckebein's body; but in the process nearly lost an eye himself, and he's since lost more at Endymion. Hm; want to stay and watch?"
"Shut up," Mu hissed, his lone gunbarrel firing yet again, only to see the beam scorch past the GuAIZ's head. "Are you talking, or fighting, jackal?"
Le Creuset merely laughed again, while the Hawk's stomach clenched. Be careful, little brother; I know you're good, but last time he nearly cost you an eye... and I'd hate to have to explain to Murrue that you're not coming back.
On the other hand, he thought, as a final beam pierced his last gunbarrel, I may not be able to tell her that... Bastard!
Ejecting the now-useless Striker pack -and hoping fleetingly that they could either repair of replace the unit- Mu rushed in for a final charge, the Strike's hands drawing the Armor Schneider knives as he did so. I'm not going down without a fight!
Within the GuAIZ's cockpit, Le Creuset smirked. "Do you honestly expect that to do any good, Mu?" he mocked. "A pair of combat knives... Falcon may've managed to destroy a BuCUE with a blind throw of those weapons, but you've no chance at all here." On the heels of those words, he fired off the pair of grapplers his machine mounted.
Mu ignored them as he rushed forward, since the weapons would ordinarily have been repelled with ease by his phase-shift... but Rau Le Creuset knew what he was doing. The ZAFT commander unerringly directed the grappling claws into gashes in the Strike's armor, melted through by energy fire. They struck, digging deep into the standard armor beneath, as well as the hydraulics... and the power systems.
Something exploded in Mu's cockpit, and he grunted in pain as a jagged pieced of debris pierced his side, drawing blood. "Urgh!"
Another secondary explosion went off within the mobile suit, and its right arm fell away, while the left dropped its knife... and now Le Creuset's GuAIZ began to move in for the kill...
Blade met blade in another furious clash; but this was different. This time, instead one mobile suit based on a deliberately-delimited design against another, which had been intended to dominate any battlefield it stepped onto, it was battle between two men, with nothing between them but cold steel.
As Griever met Requiem once again, there was neither anger nor hatred between the two combatants. Madness has overtaken the Raven the moment steel cut through the air, but it was madness tempered by the discipline of the blade; an intent to kill without any taint of fury. A battle of wills, purified by the steel itself, combat in the tradition both warriors had been inducted into. Master against apprentice, cold logic against fiery madness... Falcon against Raven.
The Falcon sidestepped a slash meant for his right arm, feeling the rush of air as Requiem swished past a centimeter from his body. The Raven quickly recovered, snapping Requiem up to stop Griever just in front of his face, and lashed out with a foot, striking the Falcon in the gut.
The Falcon fell back a pace, left hand briefly going to his stomach in an instinctive reaction, but his own counter was swift, his blade sweeping a flat arc for the Raven's chest. Requiem came down, striking the upturned flat of Griever, forcing the katana down, and a balled left fist drove toward the Falcon's face.
The gray-clad warrior danced to one side, his own hand coming up in a slap to the side of the Raven's arm, deflecting the blow into empty air. His hand dropped once again to Griever's hilt, he leapt, bioengineered muscles carrying him over the Raven's head, twisting around to land facing the other warrior's back.
The Raven spun around in the same moment, blades flashing in flat arcs at each other's throats. Edge grated against edge, and then they turned at right angles to each other, stopping equidistant from the warriors. Muscles strained, blade pressed hard against blade, and Griever, through its wielder's bioengineered muscles, began to gain the upper hand... until the Raven drove an elbow into his master's chest.
Mechanical lung already weakened, the Falcon doubled over, gasping for breath, and Griever fell from guard position. Requiem arced up... and cut through the warrior's eyes...
Le Creuset laughed, preparing to fire on last, fatal shot at the Strike. "I told you there was no way you could defeat me, Mu," he told the other pilot. "You should've listened to me, and left while you still had the chance." He smiled, savoring the moment as he began to pull the trigger... and then turned in shock, as a familiar sensation filled his head. "What the-!"
Like a guardian angel, a blue-winged shape streaked across the harbor's sky, firing a beam rifle. The first emerald green dart missed, but the second tore the GuAIZ's head off completely.
"It's the Freedom!" Le Creuset managed, before Kira Yamato came swooping in, beam saber in hand. The fiery blade finished what the beam rifle had started, first melting through both the GuAIZ's arms, then sweeping down to finish off its legs, leaving the machine a literal basket case.
The GuAIZ fell from the air, and the Strike followed.
In Freedom's cockpit, Kira watched them drop, and chased after them. He'd had difficulty just finding Mu in the first place; he'd come across Preybird along with the way, but with Ken obviously engaged in single combat with his old student on the ground, he moved on, and located Mu just in time. But what is he doing now? Kira wondered.That thing's finished; we should just get out of here...
But Mu was in no mood to let Le Creuset get away yet again. Even as the GuAIZ hit the ground, and its hatch opened, he was bringing the Strike down in a -relatively- controlled manner, unstrapping, and drawing a sidearm, before popping his own hatch. I'm not letting you get away today, you jackal, he thought viciously, and began to climb out.
He ducked back down just in time to avoid getting his head blown off. "I should've expected you'd be this persistent, Mu!" Le Creuset called. "Fine, then! Follow me!" Leaping off the shattered remains of his GuAIZ, he charged off toward a nearby structure, one that gave Mu a vague sense of foreboding.
"Where do you think you're going, you jackal?" Mu demanded. Holding his injured side, he carefully climbed down the Strike's side.
"Let me show you!" the ZAFT commander replied. He fired off another pair of shots, then raced toward the building. "Come with me! I myself shall deliver your Requiem!"
He vanished inside, and the Hawk cursed, before heading off in pursuit.
Freedom touched down a moment later. "Wait, Mu!" Kira called, swiftly popping his own hatch. "Don't follow him too far!" Reluctantly carrying a weapon of his own, he lowered himself to the ground, and took off running... little realizing the horrors he would find inside the GARM facility ahead of him.
The Raven stared down at the kneeling Falcon, as blood dripped from his former teacher's eye sockets. The man had cried out once, from the pain, but now remained silent, as though awaiting his own death with all the calm he could muster.
"You're a sad sight, Falcon," he said quietly, his mad side doing the talking. "Or maybe I shouldn't put it quite that way, since you'll never see anything again. But you really are pathetic. First you lose to you own pupil, and then you just give up, waiting for death to take you..." He began to lift Requiem. "Last chance, Sensei."
The Falcon simply knelt there, consumed by the pain. The only injury that could compare to this was when he lost his heart and lung at Endymion, and there he'd simply blacked out. Now he remained conscious, hideously aware of his maiming, knowing he had lost. Can't even see to take my cyanide capsule, he thought, struggling to maintain coherent thought through the pain. Well... he's about to kill me anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter...
Goodbye, Murrue.
Then something within him noted a change in the air currents around him, and the Falcon had the distinct impression of a blade coming straight for his neck.
The Raven gasped in astonishment as Griever suddenly arced up, intercepting Requiem mere centimeters from its target. And the block wasn't the wild movement of a desperate, blinded man; it was the precisely-calculated motion of someone who knew exactly where a blow was coming from, and exactly how to stop it. "Impossible-!"
The Falcon surged to his feet, using the unexpected motion to send Requiem flying through the air, to land point-down in the ground. Without missing a beat, he then drove Griever forward, straight into the Raven's chest.
Victor Tempest gasped again, but this time from pain... and relief. "Thank you... Falcon," he whispered. "But... how...?"
"I felt the change in air currents," Ken told him. "When you cut out my eyes, my other senses became sharp as knives, and I could tell where your blade was coming from by the way the air itself moved." He began to withdraw his blade, but Tempest grabbed his arm.
"Wait," the one-eyed pilot said weakly. "Not... yet... There are... still things I need to say." He gasped for breath. "Falcon... you have to stop... Le Creuset. He is... the same... as I... Our fates are the same... but where I just wanted it to end, he feels... that the universe itself... must be punished. When he dies... he wants to... bring all of humanity down with him..."
"I don't understand."
Tempest took another deep breath, fighting for a few more moments of life. "Falcon, I was... created by... Metzinger. When he... lost control... of you, he... created me... as your replacement. He... he was involved... when your real father, Al Da Flaga... decided to... try and cheat death, by... cloning himself. He employed... Metzinger... and his colleague, Ulen Hibiki... Later, Metzinger... used those techniques... to make me... But the... process is... flawed. Our genes are... vintage... and we can only live so long... before our cells... die. Cellular mitosis is... accelerated for us..."
Ken had only the vaguest idea of what his pupil was talking about, but he could piece together enough to know Le Creuset was up to something even worse than he'd imagined; and doubtless the disc would explain the rest. "All right, Victor," he said quietly. "Rest now, old comrade. Your death won't be in vain."
Tempest nodded weakly. "I know, Falcon... Just... end it now, please... so that they can never bring me back again..."
The Grimaldi Falcon nodded one last time, withdrew his blade... and slashed at Victor Tempest's neck.
Archangel, Bridge
It had now been a full hour since the Dominion and her attending fleet had withdrawn to the outer edge of the battle zone, and now Murrue was beginning to get very worried.
Contact with Kira had been lost within moments of his entry into the far side of Mendel, and there had been no word since. The repairs to the ships and mobile suits were well underway, and the Eternal would be able to join the next phase of the battle... but still there was no word from the three mobile suits within Mendel itself.
Sophia's revelations hadn't helped, either, and it now appeared that the Kestrel was even more nervous than Murrue herself. "This isn't good," the pilot muttered. "We should've heard something by now; I can't conceive of any threat that couldn't be defeated by the Freedom and Preybird in tandem."
Murrue glanced at her. "You... think it has something to do with this 'GARM' you mentioned?"
Sophia nodded unhappily. "I think it might, Murrue. That could explain why they're late; the secrets of that place could easily distract even Kira this long, if he became aware of them; and if my suspicions about Metzinger are right, Falcon might've gotten a little busy, too."
Natarle shook her head. "I find that unlikely, Commander; Falcon doesn't seem to let anything interfere with his mission, even something like that." She hesitated. "Unless..."
Murrue completed her thought. "Victor Tempest. And, of course, Rau Le Creuset. They're the only people who could distract Ken this long, and the two of them together could prove a handful even for Kira, Ken, and Mu."
As she spoke, an armrest screen lit up. "Asagi's coming back, Captain," Kisaka reported; the Astray pilot had been sent on a recon mission to see what lay beyond Mendel, on the opposite side. "I'm patching her through."
"It's me," Asagi Caldwell said a moment later. "There are four ZAFT ships on the other side of the colony; fourNazcas, and a Laurasia. IFF says they're Vesalius, Hoisengert, Helderton, Nacht Jaeger, and Ziegler. Currently, they're station-keeping just out of sight, but there's ionization trails indicating they deployed at least two mobile suits to the Mendel interior." She paused. "Captain... one exhaust trail seems very similar to that of the Freedom."
Murrue nodded slowly. "Thank you, Asagi." Looking back at Sophia, she raised an eyebrow. "Well, I suppose that explains why they're late," she said slowly, "or at least part of it. If they've got some kind of variant of the Freedom out there -and if, as I suspect, it's piloted by Tempest- things may've gotten very busy in there."
An armrest screen lit up again, this time with a view of the hangar. "Captain," Athrun said urgently, "I request permission to launch, and search the colony myself."
She shook her head. "No, Athrun," she said unwillingly, "I can't allow that. We've already sent three machines into there, and haven't heard from them since; we can't risk sending another when we don't know when theDominion might resume her attack. The presence of ZAFT forces just adds to that."
"But..."
"Athrun," Murrue said gently, "I don't like it any better than you do. But... we can't risk it. Like Ken says, our mission has to succeed, no matter what it costs us. We have to press on, even if..." She swallowed. "Even if Kira, Mu, and Ken never come out of there."
Silence filled the Bridge.
Mendel Colony, Genetic Advanced Reproductive Medical Research and Development Facility
Mu cautiously entered the old facility, glancing warily about as he limped through. There was something about this place that seemed to ooze evil, as though the events that had gone on here had someone tainted the very walls with the feelings of the people involved... like there were ghosts here, just waiting to leap out at him.
In other words, it's downright spooky...
The occasional laughter from Rau Le Creuset wasn't helping any. "Oh, what a delightful irony this is," the masked man said, his voice echoing through the long-abandoned central chamber. "That story that began here may yet end here... Yes, I think it's appropriate. But who would've dreamed that we'd meet again in this place?"
"What does it matter what this place is?" Mu shot back, firing his pistol toward where he thought the voice came from. "Why should I care?"
"Oh? You mean you don't know?" Rau laughed, a sound of genuine amusement, not mocking. "Oh, what a shame... what a crime it is for you not to know. After all, everything goes back to here, in the end; everything that ever happened between us, all our battles... the origin is right here, Mu, in this building."
Near the entrance, Kira heard every word, and wondered what was going on. What is he talking about? Well... I guess it doesn't matter right now...
Raising his own sidearm cautiously, Kira lightly ran into the central chamber, ascending a staircase to the next level of the spiraling room. "Mu!" he called. "Are you all right?"
Mu's head jerked. "No, Kira!" he shouted back. "Get out of here!"
At that name, Le Creuset felt as though he'd been struck by lightning. "Kira... Yamato?" he whispered. "He's still alive...? I see..." Raising his voice, he called, "So it's you, is it? How delightful it is that you could join us, Kira Yamato! The universe does indeed have some symmetry to it; no mere coincidence could've brought you here this day, when the two of us are already here."
Running toward Mu, Kira glared upward. "What are you talking about?" he demanded. "What symmetry?"
"Don't listen to him," Mu advised him, grabbing his arm and pulling him into an alcove. "He's just raving like a madman..." He glared at the young pilot. "Just what do you think you're doing here, anyway?"
Kira didn't flinch under the regard. "Did you think I'd just wait outside for you? Besides, I don't want to be the guy who tells Ken his brother got himself killed going after the guy he wants to kill."
The Hawk reluctantly chuckled. "I see your point. But..." He glanced at the brown-haired pilot's gun. "If you intend to use that thing, I suggest you switch the safety off first."
Kira winced. "Oh... right..." Even Ken would've remembered to do that, and he hates guns...
"So," Le Creuset went on, from somewhere above, "we've all come back to this place, have we? The place where everything began? Well, at least now I know one thing; how the Freedom's pilot could be so good. A shame I didn't realize earlier; not now that I have... Come with me, why don't you? See the truth for yourselves!"
There was the sound of running footsteps, and a door opening. "We'd better follow him," Mu muttered to Kira. "But whatever he says, don't believe a word of it; he's starting to babble just like Huckebein." As the pair started cautiously following Le Creuset, the Hawk tilted his head. "By the way... do you have any idea what happened to Falcon? I figured he'd be here by now, after dealing with Tempest."
Kira shook his head. "I don't know. Last I saw, they were trying to hack each other to pieces. Ken tells me a serious sword fight rarely lasts even as long as ten seconds, but... I don't know. Maybe he's hurt."
"I hope not; explaining that to Murrue might not be the safest thing to do..."
They ducked into the next room, and found themselves looking at row after row of what appeared to be incubator tubes, each with a human embryo inside.
A long-dead human embryo...
"Okay," Mu muttered, "this is really getting spooky. This place is officially macabre..." Crouching low, he shook his head. "Maybe it's a good thing Falcon isn't here after all; who knows what he'd think of this place."
"Now you begin to see glimmerings of the truth," Le Creuset announced, as though revealing one of the secrets of the universe. "Of the horrifying experiments that were performed here; of the lengths to which man's insanity will take him."
Kira shuddered. "I... I don't like this place... Mu, I don't think we should be here..."
"You'll get no argument from me, believe me."
Le Creuset, unfortunately, wasn't finished. "Tell me, Kira, does this room of horror bring back any memories? Youshould know this place, after all."
"Know this place?" Kira repeated. "But... how...?"
From somewhere behind them came the sound of metal on metal, and a section of wall falling in. Mu smiled tightly at the sound. "Sounds like Falcon's finding innovative ways to make an entrance. At least we've got backup coming." He ducked as a pair of bullets went over his head, then returned fire.
"I hope you're carrying extra ammunition, Mu," Le Creuset called. "Otherwise, we might both run out; and then where would we be? Or do you intend to finish this now?"
Mu hissed in wordless anger, and rushed toward the open door through which the masked commander had evidently vanished.
"Wait, Mu!" Kira warned him, and followed, keeping his head down. "Don't-!"
The Hawk ducked through into the dark room, and vaulted a couch. Let's finish this! Popping up, he fired three quick shots... and grunted in pain as return fire slammed into his right shoulder, forcing him to drop his gun. "Ugh!"
"Mu!" Heedless of the danger, Kira ran through the door, leaping over the couch just beneath another round of gunshots. "Mu, are you all right?"
"Just a flesh wound," Mu said through gritted teeth. "You shouldn't have followed me, you know..."
"I'm not gonna let you die here." Kira raised his head and one arm, firing his own pistol toward the white silhouette visible in the farthest shadows of the room.
Le Creuset fired back, but only once; after that came a clicking noise. In the darkness, he'd managed to run out of ammo, and the next sound was of an empty magazine hitting the floor, followed by that of a new magazine being rammed home, and the pistol's slide moving forward, chambering a new round.
"I'm impressed, Kira Yamato," he remarked, though the pilot had once again dropped behind cover. "So your courage extends even beyond the cockpit; you're not afraid to face a man with a gun in his hand. Of course, after Andrew Waltfeld's reports of Banadiya, I expected no less."
"I had a good teacher," Kira said tightly. "And I couldn't live with myself if I just gave up and ran."
"Very good, Kira, very good." Le Creuset lowered his weapon. "But it doesn't matter, because I have no intention of killing you yet. I would hate for you to die before you learned the truth of this place." He tossed something, and a photo album skittered across the floor toward them. "You see now, what this place dealt with?"
Mu took one look at one of the pictures, and gasped... for one of the figures in it was himself, much younger; and the other... "My... my dad...?"
"Perhaps you'd care to stick around for awhile," Le Creuset suggested. "Learn the truth." He tossed another picture. "Because after all, you're both deeply connected to what happened here... right, Kira?"
It was Kira's turn to gasp, for if he did not recognize the woman holding one of the children in it, he did recognize the other woman... and both children.
Himself... and Cagalli...
Author's note: The battle for Mendel has entered a lull; but within the colony, other events are happening. Ken DiFalco has, at last, defeated his rogue student, yet been maimed in the process... and revelations of the past are coming to light...
Yes, I know this chapter is late; but don't blame me this time. The computer I use for the Internet crashed last week, and while we replaced it immediately, it didn't have a built-in floppy disc drive. Since my writing is done on a separate computer -partially to protect it from viruses- I've been unable to update till now. Fear not, the next chapter shouldn't take too long.
I expect the reviews for this chapter should be... interesting, under the circumstances. Well, till they start coming in... -Solid Shark