I don't own anything except Ken DiFalco, his team, and Sophia DiFalco

I also do not own the Odin; it is Deathzealot's creation, and the credit is his, not mine

Archangel, Hangar, August 7th, C.E. 71

It was a stunned and shell-shocked crew that gathered in the hangar to await the launch from the Odin. The battle that had concluded not an hour before had wound them all tight as springs, and the subsequent arrival of the new vessel -which had proceeded to blast the Earth Alliance forces into dust bunnies and atomized hydrogen- had left them feeling very off-balance.

The revelation of who was in charge of the rescue had stunned the entire crew.

Now all but a skeleton watch on the Bridge and in the engine room flocked to the hangar, led by Murrue Ramius and Ken DiFalco, the latter literally being led by the hand by the former lest he run into anything along the way. He could usually navigate well enough... but there had been accidents.

For his part, the ace's head was spinning. First his plan had gone awry -an occasion so unusual as to cause some disorientation when it occurred- and then an old friend and sometime comrade he'd thought dead for months had turned up alive. It's enough to drive a man to drink, he thought to himself, as they came to a halt. Only problem is, I can't get drunk... even if the doc would let me try. Given the status of his recovery, it was unlikely Doctor Hibson would allow anything of the sort.

As the Odin's launch came close, Ken noticed Kira joining the group; he still wore his flightsuit, and had apparently come straight from the Freedom's cockpit. The ace looked at him for a moment, then raised his hand in salute.

Kira saw it, blinked, and returned the salute; and that was all that was exchanged between them.

That's not a good sign, Murrue thought, noting the byplay. Kira helped save us back there, and all Ken will do is give him a salute... and neither one will say a word. This must be worse than I'd thought...

By now, the launch had come to a rest, and the hatch swiftly opened. Within, taking the first step toward the deck, stood Rear Admiral Lewis Halberton, Earth Alliance Forces Eighth Fleet... though if the shoulder patch was any indication, it would be more accurate to say late of the Earth Alliance Forces.

Where once had been the patch of the Earth Alliance, there was now an armored warrior on a six-legged horse, with a wicked-looking sword; and beneath the image read the name Odin.

"It's good to see you all again," Halberton said warmly, stepping down to the deck. "It's been nearly six months since then, and a lot of things have changed..."

Murrue stepped forward, saluting crisply. "It's a tremendous pleasure to see you again, Sir," she said, voice cracking. "I... we all thought you were dead, Sir."

"He nearly was," Acting-Captain Jason Chance said wryly, following the admiral out of the shuttle. "But that's a tale for later. It's an honor to finally set foot on the Archangel, Captain Ramius; the Admiral's told us a lot about her and her crew, but we've never been sure how much of it is just tall tales."

"Very little, Captain Chance," Ken informed him, allowing a trace of pride into his voice. "You'll find no finer crew in space... and certainly none this fine in the Earth Forces."

Chance looked mildly offended, but Halberton simply laughed. "Don't mind him, Jason. In the first place, he's probably right; and in the second, this man has every right to be a tad arrogant. He took Nova away from us last year, and if it weren't for the Cyclops at Endymion, he very probably would've taken control of the Moon away from us, too." He stepped forward, and clasped Ken's hand. "It's good to see you, old friend."

"I wish I could say the same," the ace said wryly, "but the Doc tells me it'll be another week yet before I can see anything at all."

Halberton nodded gravely. "So I see. I'll want to hear all about it; and I'm sure your crew will want to hear all about how I'm not dead. But first, Captain Ramius, shall we adjourn to your office? I believe we have much to discuss."

Murrue nodded. "Yes, Admiral, I'm sure we do." She paused. "By the way, Sir, do you have any idea what happened to our other ships? Eternal and Kusanagi should've been heading in as soon as they saw something was wrong..."

"They had a little trouble with a pair of cloaked Agamemnons," the Admiral explained. "Said problems ceased as soon as we got involved; it seems they weren't expecting us any more than Castor Truman was... and they really weren't expecting our own ace to turn up when he did. There are so few people who can use wired gunbarrels that the appearance of a 105 Dagger with a Gunbarrel pack caught them by surprise."

Mu spoke up for the first time, from just behind Murrue. "If I remember right, the only other ace with that kind of spatial awareness in the Earth Forces was Morgan Chevalier; don't tell me you've got the Moonlight Mad Dog with you."

Halberton smiled. "We do indeed, Commander. And I think it's now time to tell our long story; I think you'll find it quite interesting."

Archangel, Captain's Office

With Neumann and Cateau holding the fort on the Bridge, Murrue, Natarle, and Ken gathered in Murrue's office with Halberton and Chance; they'd decided a small group would be best for the initial explanations, and others could be brought in on it later.

"You know," Halberton began, once they'd all found seats -several of them moved in for the occasion- "it took us a couple of months to determine whether or not you people were still alive in the first place. Alaska had been reported as a total loss, and none of the transmissions we intercepted during the Orb battles shed definitive light on the subject. It wasn't until we discovered that the entire Second Fleet was being sent to Mendel that we began to realize there was something big going on."

Chance nodded in agreement. "At first, we thought there were ZAFT forces holed up at L4, planning an ambush. Then we heard Muruta Azrael was heading there personally, and the Admiral here figured out that Commander DiFalco might be up to something."

"Only you could inspire that kind of wrath in the Earth Forces," the Admiral explained. "They've never quite forgiven you for the damage you did last year."

Ken nodded ruefully. "Yes, I found that out myself, at Alaska; it appears one of the primary objectives there was to use my own plan -Operation Spit Break- to get me killed. Unfortunately, hell had no vacancies."

Halberton looked at Murrue and raised an eyebrow. "That's interesting," he remarked. "He's actually starting to sound like a human being again. How did you pull that one off, Captain? Usually, when Falcon sets his mind to something it takes a giant explosion to change his course."

She smiled sheepishly. "As near as we can tell, we've just been having a bad influence on him, Sir."

Natarle cleared her throat. "Ah, excuse me, Admiral, but... how exactly did you survive? And why is the Odin acting on her own?"

Halberton glanced at his flag captain. "You want to get the ball rolling, Jason?"

Chance nodded. "Sure, Admiral. Natarle, this is something of a long story, so let me start at the beginning." He leaned back in his chair, looking like a man about to deliver a speech he'd rehearsed for months... which he probably had. "All right. You know, of course, that Captain Callahan and Commander DuMont were both with Captain Mornay when the attack happened, right?"

Natarle nodded. "Yes, I remember seeing them there just before Captain Mornay sent Arnold and me to find Murrue. I hadn't known for sure they were still there when the explosion went off, but I'm not surprised."

Ken lifted an eyebrow. "Captain Mornay?"

"He was the Archangel's original captain," Murrue explained. "What, you mean you didn't hack the ship's crew roster when you stole the G-weapon data?"

"If I had, I would've known you and Sophia were assigned to her," he pointed out.

Chance cleared his throat. "To continue," he said pointedly, "when the Le Creuset team attacked, they started by trying to blow up the Archangel. The attempt failed, of course, but it did kill most of the Archangel's original complement of officers, as well as our captain and first officer. After that, the chief engineer, Lieutenant Commander Devereaux, attempted to get the Odin moving and out of range of the attack. Unfortunately, the explosions in Archangel's harbor triggered a secondary detonation in ours, resulting in a hull breech and shrapnel in the engine room, killing the commander and wounding his assistant; that left us without a senior line officer to take over, so our wing commander, Lieutenant Commander Wachowski, ordered me to take the conn and get the ship clear, while he launched in one of our Moebius units."

"I think Mu knew Wachowski," Murrue said, frowning. "A hot hand in a mobile armor, from what he said; one of the few good enough to take down a GINN all by himself with just a Moebius."

Chance nodded. "Unfortunately, Commander Wachowski wasn't quite good enough to fly his machine out of a debris-filled harbor; one of his engines sucked in a chunk of our hull, and he... never had a chance to eject."

"Which left a mere senior-grade lieutenant in charge of the ship," Halberton put it. "A situation I believe you're familiar with, Captain Ramius."

Murrue smiled. "Yes, Admiral, I believe I am."

Now Natarle leaned forward, a puzzled frown on her face. "But why didn't you make contact with HQ, Jason? Or even the Archangel? I mean, yes, there's plenty of reason now to stay away from the Earth Forces, but back at Heliopolis..."

Chance shrugged. "Fact is, Natarle, our radio gear was damaged by the same explosion that killed Commander Devereaux. We couldn't signal anyone until we got it repaired, and we couldn't even find the Archangel; your efforts might not have fooled Le Creuset, but they left us completely clueless." His jaw tightened. "It turned out to be just as well; by the time we got communications back, you were nowhere to be found, so we headed straight for Ptolemaeus... which would've taken us a good three weeks.

"Then we turned up the files Captain Callahan had left behind."

Murrue raised an eyebrow. "What kind of files?"

Odin's captain had a positively grim expression on his face. "It seems the Captain was leading a double life, Captain Ramius. According to private files we found in his personal database, he was actually a member of Blue Cosmos... and the files also provided the names of several other moles in the military and the government, including Admirals Hamilton, Truman, and Kreitzman... and Atlantic Federation Vice Foreign Minister George Allster."

Ken nodded, unsurprised. "Yes, I rather thought so; but I must confess that I wouldn't have expected that to be enough to get you to desert. Even Natarle here had begun to notice the anti-Coordinator bias that was slipping into the military. Blue Cosmos involvement couldn't have been that much of a surprise."

"It wasn't," Chance admitted. "None of us liked to think about that, but it wasn't really a shock to learn they were infiltrating the military. However," he went on, his voice suddenly hard, "there was something else in those files: the exact nature of the attack on Copernicus last year, the one that killed off the United Nations' leadership... the one that Earth used as justification for this war."

The ace nodded in what Murrue thought was probably savage satisfaction, and she didn't blame him. He's always maintained that it was Earth that arranged that; he must be delighted that there's finally proof of it... "So," she said aloud, "what did you do then, Captain?"

"We went AWOL," Chance said simply. "Near as we could tell later, Blue Cosmos had only stuck the one agent on the ship -Captain Callahan- and the rest were all decent folks who couldn't stand the thought of fighting a war based on lies. Now, don't get me wrong, Commander DiFalco; a few of my people weren't any fonder of Coordinators than Blue Cosmos is. But even they, prejudiced though they might be, didn't like the thought of blowing people up over a trumped-up issue."

Ken tilted his head. "And how do they feel now?"

The older man shrugged. "Now? Well, let's just say they've gotten a new appreciation for how little a person's genes really matter. There've been atrocities on both sides, but the Cyclops at Alaska and the nuclear attack on Orb convinced even the diehards that the Naturals were being the real barbarians." He shrugged again. "Anyway, after finding Callahan's files, we changed course immediately... and, incidentally, mirrored your own for awhile. We first hit the remains of Artemis, and scavenged what supplies we could; then we headed off for the Debris Belt, and set up a cache in an old wrecked Island-Three colony, like Heliopolis. And then... then we noticed the ZAFT ships that were chasing you to the Eighth Fleet rendezvous."

"And that's where my part of the story comes in," Halberton interjected. "You remember, of course, that Laurasia that was bearing down on us."

Murrue nodded. "Yes, the Gamow. I remember the incident quite well, Admiral. And, as I recall, the Menelaos succeeded in destroying her."

"Yes," he concurred. "But only at the cost of falling too deep into Earth's gravity well to escape, which resulted in atmospheric friction tearing the ship apart." Pain flickered across his face, as he remembered his dead. "The Archangel was obviously in no position to notice, but Captain Hoffman -may he rest in peace- managed to shove me into a lifepod at the last moment, and ejected me into the atmosphere. Fortunately, unlike the ship herself the lifepod was designed to accomplish the feat without being incinerated."

"That's where we came in," Chance said, picking up the story. "We picked up the lifepod's transponder, and realized that only an admiral could've been aboard it; which meant it had to be Admiral Halberton, under the circumstances. Now, we were wandering pretty aimlessly at that point, with no clear goal in mind, so I ordered Ensign Lipinski, our helmsman, to take us into the atmosphere, too. We managed to catch up with the lifepod in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and we retrieved it before it could sink."

"When they brought me aboard, I was barely conscious," Halberton said, nodding. "Things had gotten a little warm during reentry, and the impact with the water didn't help. When I was back on my feet, though, Captain Chance here showed me the files Callahan had left. As soon as I saw those..." He shook his head. "Well, I'd known better than you people that Blue Cosmos was becoming more and more popular within the military, but I'd never suspected just how deep their claws had begun to reach. When I came face to face with the truth, my first reaction was to go see Sutherland and the others at Alaska personally; but then I realized that if I tried confronting them with what I knew, I probably wouldn't last very long."

"That's when we started making our plans," Chance concurred. "The Admiral, naturally, took over the operation, and he promoted me to captain; though the exact legality of that promotion we're none too sure of."

"Nor does it matter," the Admiral said firmly, with the air of a man engrossed in an argument that had been repeated many times. "You're the man in charge of the Odin, and that makes you her captain, Jason."

Chance tossed his head in resigned irritation. "Whatever. Anyway, once that was decided, we started keeping tabs on the Archangel. Through communications intercepts -we have a very good cryptographer aboard- we learned you had touched down in ZAFT-controlled territory in Africa; we tracked your progress from there to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, where you had your run-in with Marco Morassim. That was also when we began to suspect the Commander here was up to something, given the mysterious detonation of Morassim's ship."

"Always knew you had a scheme in mind, Falcon," Halberton said sagely. "I just wasn't sure what it was."

"But why were you following the Archangel so intently?" Natarle wondered. "If you were in opposition to the Earth Forces by then..."

"The answer's simple enough, Lieutenant," he replied. "You remember when the Archangel rendezvoused with the Eighth Fleet, and I commissioned Falcon in the Earth Forces, I said that he probably had an agenda of his own, and he concurred. As soon as Jason showed me Callahan's records, I had the distinct feeling that Falcon's primary reason for joining the Earth Forces in the first place was to eventually get your entire ship to leave the Alliance."

"You were right," Murrue told him. "And we're grateful, I must say."

Halberton raised an eyebrow minutely, seeing the fond look his student gave the scarred pilot. Well, well, he thought to himself. I'll bet you were, Captain; but I daresay it wasn't just his logic that convinced you to side with him. I wonder, though, whether you've even admitted it to yourself...

"I see," he said aloud, allowing no trace of his thoughts into his voice. "In any case, I felt it was only a matter of time before you left the Earth Forces for good; and when Alaska happened, I had a shrewd idea it was time... and that was when we began our operations."

Chance nodded. "As soon as news broke about the Cyclops, the Admiral ordered us back into space. Fortunately, Odin's smaller than Archangel; we were able to get back into space just using the positronic interference effect. And once there, we started harassing both sides."

"We had one advantage that True ZAFT didn't," Halberton remarked. "Whereas they knew all along the Archangel was out here somewhere, no one had any idea the Odin had even survived Heliopolis. Oh, there were rumors, of course, but nothing solid; all the rumors did was add to the confusion, and make our job easier."

"And at the same time, we kept track of the Archangel. It wasn't too difficult," Chance added with a thin smile. "The nuclear attack on Orb was something of a dead giveaway, for example; I wasn't so sure of it myself, but the Admiral maintained that only the Grimaldi Falcon could've stirred up a hornet's nest that nasty in a situation where the Earth Forces were trying to take the local facilities intact."

Murrue nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, I can see that. But how did you obtain so much information about the Earth Forces' operations? Surely you couldn't have gotten it all through radio intercepts."

"That's true," Halberton agreed. "But it seems Jason here had a friend in Atlantic Federation Intelligence, who was able to keep us up-to-date on the gossip at Headquarters."

At that, Chance shot a nervous glance at Natarle, and coughed. "Old girlfriend," he explained uncomfortably. "She, ah, was happy to help when she heard who was commanding Odin."

"I'm sure," Natarle muttered; which led Murrue to think that she and Chance had, at one point, been more than merely friends at the Academy. "I suppose that's also how you were able to ignore the 'Dead Zone' effect Truman spoke of?"

"Exactly," Halberton confirmed. "Unfortunately, we lost contact with her shortly after receiving the required data," he went on somberly. "We... think Blue Cosmos purged her. I doubt they were on to her, though; more likely they were just ridding themselves of 'unreliable' elements."

"Another crime they have to pay for," Chance said in a quiet, dangerous voice. "I served the Atlantic Federation with pride and loyalty once upon a time, but the war burned all that out of me."

"I know how you feel, Captain," Ken told him solemnly. "Believe me, I do." He looked back at Halberton. "So, Lewis, you said Mendel was when you first started to realize something big was going on. What exactly clued you in?"

The admiral smiled. "Come now, Falcon. I knew already that you, personally, were almost certainly still alive -the mysterious Preybird was very clearly your style- but the real clincher was when not one, not two, but five ships turned up on the defensive side. Archangel and Kusanagi were known factors, but a second Archangel-class and the two unknown ships told us you really did have some kind of grand scheme in mind. You don't put together that much firepower for nothing."

The ace nodded slowly. "You're right, Lewis." He glanced at Murrue, received a nod, and turned back to the admiral. "You're quite right, in fact. Let me introduce you to the Shiva Option."

Eternal, Hangar, August 8th, C.E. 71

Athrun wasn't surprised to find Lacus waiting for him when he climbed out of the Justice. He'd meant to make the trip the day before, after the battle, but he'd gotten tied up helping to repair the damage Archangel had suffered before Odin's timely arrival.

"I'm glad you're safe, Athrun," she said, throwing her arms around him. "When you all vanished yesterday, and we didn't know what was going on, I was so worried..."

"I was fine, Lacus," Athrun said, returning the embrace. "Nothing we couldn't handle; though it might've gotten hairy if Kira hadn't launched when he did." He looked away. "I'm just sorry I wasn't able to help when you came under attack."

"It wasn't too bad," Lacus assured him. "There were three of them, all Agamemnon-class, but the Odin arrived just after the battle began, and destroyed them. I was just worried about you."

"It did get a little hectic out there," he conceded. "On the other hand, maybe we needed the reality check; ever since Orb we've been practically walking right over the opposition, and I think that's made us feel just a little too invincible..."

She tilted her head. "And given us too much faith in Commander DiFalco's abilities?" she said shrewdly.

"Something like that," he admitted. "He's warned us time and again that he's not infallible; and intellectually, we knew that. GENESIS is proof enough of it. But even Kira's never actually seen it, except for times when he's nearly gotten himself killed. This was the first time his mistake was nearly a disaster for us all, you know."

"And you're beginning to lose confidence in him," Lacus murmured, nodding to herself. "Have you talked to Kira about it?"

He nodded uncomfortably. "Yes, I have; and that's one reason the Commander's starting to make me nervous. You know Kira's never been happy with this 'Shiva Option'. Not only does it involve getting a lot of people killed, but it's also risky... as we found out yesterday."

"I believe Commander DiFalco would say that in battle, victory cannot be gained without risk," she pointed out. "And there is also the point that, while this may be a desperate strategy, it's because we are desperate. We may well be the only people who can stop this war from resulting in mutual genocide, but we only have five -now six- ships; hardly enough to meet either side on their own terms, let alone both. If we are to bring peace, our only choice is to force ZAFT and the Earth Forces to fight on our terms."

Athrun sighed. "I guess you're right. But... I don't think we can convince Kira of that, and quite frankly, that scares me more than the risks this plan involves. Those two don't understand each other any more, and with the strength of their convictions... I just don't like to think where that might lead."

"I know," Lacus said softly. "And I also feel they would be more effective if they worked together; their skills are formidable apart, and together I suspect they would be almost unstoppable. But," she went on, more brightly, "that's not something we should be worrying about right now. Now I just want to relax for awhile, and talk about something other than battle."

She began tugging him toward the hangar's exit, and he reflected that perhaps it was time to forget the fighting, if only for a little while.

Archangel, Hangar

Once again wearing a gray trench coat over his red uniform, as he'd done in times long past, the Grimaldi Falcon floated before his personal machine, looking it over through a pair of goggles. He'd resisted using the things, preferring to wait until his eyes regenerated, but Murdoch had pointed out he was the only person completely familiar with Preybird's structure. If his mechanics had missed anything, Ken would be the person most likely to find it.

"An impressive piece of machinery, Falcon," Lewis Halberton called quietly, entering the hangar from a side hatch. "Scary, too."

"That was kind of the idea, Lewis," the ace told him, running a hand over the dormant machine's armor. "A Gray Demon personified... an instrument of selective death on the battlefield, built for one ultimate purpose: survive past any opposition to reach GENESIS, and destroy it from the inside."

"Looks like it would do a fine job of it, too," the admiral commented. "Sparky showed me the report the Zala team made of their first encounter with Preybird, and I must say I was impressed. To think that, even in its incomplete form, it successfully took down all four stolen G-weapons in under thirty seconds... It's no wonder the Earth Forces tried to use nuclear weapons on it at Orb."

"They nearly succeeded," Ken admitted. "They suckered me in, then my own blind rage at the presence of nukes did the rest. If it weren't for Kira, I'd have died that day..."

"Yet even there, Preybird didn't fight at its full potential," Halberton murmured. "Why not?"

The pilot froze, and turned slowly in the air. "How did you know that?" he asked, expression unreadable behind the goggles.

The admiral shrugged. "Wasn't that hard to figure out, Falcon, though I doubt anyone outside your old team realizes it. Tom, you see, told me about the special motor control system Preybird uses; the artificial muscle tissue, and the synthetic nerve fibers. An ingenious concept... but one that left me feeling that something wasn't quite right. So, I went back over the battle records Archangel has of Preybird's actions, and I happened to notice that its performance, while admittedly phenomenal, wasn't quite up to what it ought to be capable of."

Ken was silent for a long moment. "You're right," he said finally. "And there's a good reason for it. You see, one of the areas in which I surpass Kira and Cagalli is in G-tolerance; I can pull some maneuvers that would cause even them to black out, though whether that's the result of genetic engineering or the vagaries of nature, I don't know. In any case, in the past I've managed to cause two mobile suits to literally fall apart around me. My reaction time leaves the machine in the dust, and eventually that tears it apart; that's what happened to my GINN at the Bloody Valentine, and Raptor in the Marshall Islands."

Halberton's eyes narrowed. "I thought Preybird's motor system was supposed to prevent that."

The ace shook his head. "It's only as good as the computer running it, Lewis. Preybird would certainly last longer than anything else, in that situation, but eventually it would come apart at the seams. So... Preybird has limiters on its performance. They keep it from going beyond a certain point... thus saving the machine's true performance for one last effort."

"Jachin," Halberton stated. "You're expecting this final battle of yours to take place at Jachin Due, and Preybird's full capabilities are being saved for the run on GENESIS, am I right?"

Ken nodded. "Exactly. I can only risk it once; Preybird is theoretically capable of maneuvers that would make even my head spin, but doing so will create awesome stress on the frame. That'll be worth it, though... if it gets me into the core of GENESIS."

"You're expecting to die there," the admiral murmured. "Aren't you."

"The possibility exists," the ace said quietly. "And it's hardly the least likely outcome. But if my life is the price to be paid for my sin, then so be it."

Halberton slowly shook his head. "I'm guessing you haven't told anyone that."

"No. It might change Kira's opinion of my actions, but Dearka would make sarcastic remarks until I relented, Cagalli would beat me to a pulp, and Murrue... Murrue would pitch a fit, and possibly try to pull rank on me."

"It's because she cares about you," the admiral said quietly. "You know that, don't you?"

Ken nodded. "It hasn't escaped my notice, Lewis. But I lost more than just a home in the Bloody Valentine Tragedy; I lost someone I cared for very deeply, and since then, I've preferred to remain dedicated solely to my mission. One day, the law of averages will catch up with me, too, and I prefer not to leave loose ends behind."

"Maybe you really have forgotten what it's like to be human," Halberton mused. "That's not an attitude that your comrades would approve of; it comes too close to fatalism. Almost as if you think it's your destiny to die in this war."

"Wrong," the ace replied. "I don't believe in destiny, or Fate. Man blazes his own path through the universe, down the river of time; free will is what drives us, not some predetermined set of factors. No, Lewis, I just don't want to drag anyone else down with me. Besides, I entered this war with the intention of protecting the PLANTs, and that's exactly what I'm going to do, even if it costs me my life."

"Despite the fact that you could still save yourself," the admiral murmured. "There is another target, you know, if I understand GENESIS right. One with considerably less risk to yourself."

"You're talking about Jachin Due itself." It wasn't a question. "The place where GENESIS is from controlled from; the nerve center of the defense of the PLANTs, and very probably where Patrick will be when it all goes down. A tough not to crack, but a more easily obtainable goal than making it to the interior of GENESIS."

Halberton nodded. "Exactly. So... why haven't you spoken of the possibility to your comrades?"

Ken sighed. "Lewis... how on earth could I tell Athrun Zala that the safest way to end this war is to assassinate his father?"

Halberton's eyebrows went up in understanding. "I see... So you'd rather sacrifice your life than force that grim reality on your comrade. Admirable indeed, old friend... if not exactly conducive to self-preservation."

"I stopped worrying about self-preservation the day she died at Junius Seven," the ace said calmly. "If I survive this war, fine; I'll be adrift, but I can find a new path once the mission is complete. But if I don't... Better that I die atoning for my sin than others pay for my mistakes."

"You've changed, Falcon," his old friend murmured. "That's not the attitude I remember from the blockade. Do you remember what you said then? 'There is only one ultimate rule in war: survive'. You were all fired up to protect the PLANTs..."

"I haven't changed, Lewis," Ken told him quietly. "The situation has. That was before the Bloody Valentine, before Endymion... before GENESIS. I've given my life for my country before; I'll do it again if I have to. The responsibility is mine, and no one else's."

Archangel, Cafeteria

Alicia Cateau knew who was entering the cafeteria long before he came into her line of sight; she recognized the smell of his brand of cigar.

She sat alone at one of the tables; though she was on good terms with most of the Archangel's crew, most of them were helping repair the damage from the previous day's battle... and she didn't feel like risking a meeting with any of the Odin's original crew. Archangel and the rest of True ZAFT had accepted her on the basis of Ken's word that he trusted her, but she had a feeling the new arrivals wouldn't.

On the other hand, I know this man personally...

"Been a long time, Morgan," Alicia said, just as Chevalier came around to the opposite side of the table. "Never thought I'd run into you out here."

"Feeling's mutual, Alley," he said easily. "This seat taken?"

"Be my guest, Morgan; or do you prefer Mad Dog these days?" She shrugged. "Anyway, I could use the company; everyone else is busy. I would be, too, but I haven't been with the ship long enough to be of any use in damage control."

"So I hear," Chevalier remarked, sitting. "And Morgan's fine; 'Moonlight Mad Dog' is something of an ironic name." He puffed on his cigar for a moment. "You know, I was pretty surprised to hear you'd fallen in with the Archangel; last I heard, you were with one of that crazy bastard Azrael's special projects."

Alicia grimaced. "I was; and I have an unpleasant feeling that scum was planning on using me as the next biological CPU. Fortunately, he never had the chance. Commander DiFalco shot me down in Orb, and set me free from the Earth Forces at last." She lifted an eyebrow. "I was surprised to hear you were with the Odin; last I remember, you were training up to be one of the Alliance's first mobile suit pilots." She smiled slightly. "And that you'd earned the nickname Moonlight Mad Dog, of course."

He waved his cigar. "That was before Orb, my dear; before they used nuclear weapons in an act of pure vengeance against an enemy they had already effectively defeated through conventional means. I was at Ptolemaeus at the time, helping train up a batch of 105 Dagger pilots -I'm pretty sure they were the boys you ran into at Mendel- and I wasn't too happy. That sounded even worse than the thinking that ended with you launching that nuke at Junius Seven, so I bailed. Took my 105 Dagger, a Gunbarrel pack, and some extra supplies, and split." He chuckled. "Not my smartest move, in hindsight; if things hadn't gone the way they did, I'd have died out in space somewhere, accomplishing absolutely nothing in the process."

"But you didn't die," she observed. "Let me guess: you ran into the Odin your second day out, and the Admiral recruited you."

"Pretty much," Chevalier confirmed. "That was about when I learned that your Commander DiFalco was stirring up trouble all over the world and the colonies, too; figured we'd run into you guys sooner or later." Sticking the cigar between his teeth again, he leaned forward. "So tell me something, Alley," he said seriously. "Do you think DiFalco actually has any chance of pulling off his crazy scheme?"

"I don't know," Alicia said simply. "Captain Ramius and the others have been with him since Heliopolis, and they're confident there's at least a possibility of success. Me..." She shrugged. "Let's just say I wouldn't bet against it. I was at the Bloody Valentine, Morgan; I launched the weapon that ended his past. Most of the rest of that battle I saw from an ejection seat, but what I did see scared me. You don't ever want to get him angry enough to go Berserker, Morgan; he has spatial awareness on the same level you do, with snake-quick reflexes and G-tolerances beyond Coordinator norm. He pulled maneuvers in that battle that his GINN literally couldn't take, and a few months ago he even made a G-weapon fall apart. He's one of the best pilots I ever saw, and as for his planning, well... I was at Nova, too, and it wasn't a pleasant experience."

He grinned around his cigar. "Sounds like you like the guy, Alley."

"Not in the way you're suggesting, Morgan," she told him, leaning back. "For one thing, nobody mentions romance around him and gets away with a whole hide, and for another... Well, it's not generally a good idea to poach on Captain Ramius' territory."

Chevalier's grin became a smirk. "Yeah, I heard talk about that; seems Archangel's mechanics have a pool going on about that one."

Alicia nodded. "I know; I'm in for twenty myself."

Archangel, Hangar

Ken had returned to his quarters for more much-needed rest, and now Lewis C. Halberton stood on the deck, looking up at the ZGMF-X00A Preybird. A truly impressive piece of machinery, he thought to himself. Designed by an equally impressive young man... It's the youthful sense of immortality that keeps wars going, yet this time it's one young man's willingness to die for his cause that's changed the course of this war. Well, he amended mentally, that, and another youth who's determined to save the world... When was it that the fate of the human race fell into the hands of kids? How can they stand up under the burden they've knowingly taken upon themselves? He shook his head. Was I ever that young? If I was, I know I never had the self-confidence these boys have...

The admiral glanced up, hearing on the upper side hatches sliding open. Through it stepped Kira Yamato, dressed in ZAFT red with the coat open, a short, curved sword at his side. A peculiar expression on his face, he drifted over to the Freedom, and looked into the darkened yellow eyes, as though trying to read the machine's mind.

Halberton watched the young pilot curiously. This was remarkably similar to their first meeting, months before, when he'd found Kira in front of the Strike, looking back on the weeks of flight from Heliopolis. Then the young man had looked exhausted, tired from the fighting and the tension, and obviously looking forward to returning to a peaceful life away from the war.

In truth, the Admiral suspected Kira's peace wouldn't have lasted long, even if he'd successfully made it to Orb. Even had the Porta Panama mass driver not been destroyed, Orb would've been targeted by the Earth Forces eventually; Muruta Azrael's ambitions made that inevitable. Yet, the peace would've been there for a time, at least, and evacuating to Ame-no-Mihashira would've prolonged it. The Alliance won't dare attack Sahaku's stronghold, he mused. They might succeed, but only by using forces better spent against ZAFT. Perhaps your peace would've been a lasting one, young Kira... but would you have been able to live with yourself, I wonder?

He suspected that the answer to that question was on Kira's face now. The weary look had been replaced by a fire in his eyes, a determination to see it through to the end... and the sword he carried was proof that, however they might differ in some matter, he and Ken still had much in common.

"I see you really did have the will to see it through to the end," Halberton said finally. "Right, Kira Yamato?"

Kira jerked in surprise. "Uh, Admiral! I, uh, didn't see you there, Sir..."

The admiral waved a hand. "Don't worry about it, Kira; you were obviously preoccupied." He tilted his head. "You know, back in February I never would've imagined you'd come this far."

"I didn't either," the pilot admitted. "I fought only to protect my friends; I was hoping to just leave the ship when we got to Earth. But they stayed around, so I figured someone had to keep protecting them... and then that shuttle went down." He looked back up at Freedom. "I vowed then that I wouldn't let anyone else die, no matter what it might cost the enemy... or me."

"And in the end, it cost you a great deal," Halberton noted. "I've talked with Falcon; he spoke of the strain you were under, especially when the Vice Minister's daughter was still manipulating you. He also maintains," he added, "that if it weren't for Miss Cagalli, you might've snapped."

"Maybe so," Kira said quietly. "She... helped me a lot, especially after I realized what Flay was doing. That's when I started to understand what was really at stake. And then... I fought Athrun, in the Marshall Islands. Tolle died there, and Athrun and I nearly killed each other..."

"And you ended up in the PLANTs, being nursed back to health by Miss Lacus and Falcon's partisans." The admiral smiled sadly. "No one would've blamed you if you'd left the battlefield for good after that. For my part, I thought you were dead; communication intercepts indicated that Alaska thought so, and so did the Archangel. That kind of experience must've affected you rather deeply."

Kira nodded. "It did. And for the first time, I was able to look at war in a different way. Not from the inside, but from the outside, with the perspective of my own experience. I realized how... how futile it all was; all those people killing and dying for nothing... I couldn't just stay there and be safe, Admiral. I had to do something, because, like Falcon and Mu told me a long time ago, I do have the power to make a difference. If I didn't put it to good use, I'd never be able to live with myself, you know?"

"I know exactly what you mean," Halberton said sagely. "Once you've stepped onto the path, there's really no turning back. You can stay out of it from the beginning, but once you're in it, you can't let your comrades down."

"I went back into war to stop the killing," Kira said pensively. "I came back to Earth to save the Archangel, and I kept on fighting so that people wouldn't have to die in this pointless war anymore." He sighed. "And that's where Falcon and I don't agree anymore. This 'Shiva Option' of his... it's just leading to more killing..."

"Yet far less than if nuclear weapons were used on the PLANTs, or if GENESIS were fired against Earth," Halberton pointed out quietly. "More may die in the short run, yes, but you'll find Falcon cares little for the short term. He aims to stop the bloodshed completely in the long term, and that will save more lives than he's taking right now."

Kira shook his head. "I don't understand his reasoning," he said frankly. "I just don't. How can he be so cold? I thought at first he didn't care at all; then I thought it was just an act, to keep the world guessing. Now... now I think he sees people as numbers on paper..."

"That was true once," Halberton agreed. "Between Endymion and the Marshall Islands, I think that's exactly how he felt. But since then, and before Endymion, his thinking's been very different." He stroked his mustache thoughtfully. "The difference between the two of you, and, I think, the reason you can't understand his thinking, is that h's a soldier, Kira... and you aren't."

Kira blinked in confusion. "Huh? But I've fought as hard as anyone..."

"Perhaps I should've said you're not a career soldier," the admiral corrected himself. "You fight only as long as this war lasts; you were dragged into it against your will, and you don't intend to stay with soldiering beyond the war's end. Falcon, on the other hand... Well, he's not really a soldier, either. He's a warrior."

The pilot blinked again. "What's the difference?"

"The differences are somewhat subtle at times, but they're there. First, a soldier is someone who fights as part of a unit, as though they're all parts of the same body. A warrior, on the other hand, fights as an individual, relying only upon his own strength." Halberton gazed speculatively at Preybird. "In the war room, Falcon is certainly a soldier; his plans reflect that. But surely you've noticed this, too: when he enters the battlefield, he fights alone."

Kira shrugged. "He always says it's because no one can keep up with him; that others would just slow him down."

The admiral nodded. "Oh, there's a certain amount of truth in that; but more to the point, he relies on his own strength more than anything else. Unlike a soldier, he's been training in the arts of war for his entire life; he was studying the blade and unarmed combat when he was a mere child, and he joined ZAFT before practically anyone else."

"But he was trained first as an engineer-"

"Yes," Halberton acknowledged. "But you've seen how he applies his talents. GENESIS was conceived as an engine of peace, yet he quite effectively turned it into a powerful weapon; almost instinctively, one might say. A more pertinent example, though, is that." He nodded at the dormant Preybird, which looked lethal even with its power down; quite unlike the majestic Freedom, it looked, like its pilot's namesake, the peregrine falcon, like it had exactly one purpose: hunting. "He trusts Preybird more than any other weapon in his arsenal; possibly more even than his own comrades. He designed it to his own exacting specifications, his most trusted subordinates constructed it, and so he knows it will perform exactly as he expects it to. In battle, the Grimaldi Falcon and the Preybird are one and the same, a single well-honed weapon. Like a katana, the pilot is the soft, flexible core, and the machine is the tough, sharp outer edge. He trusts it implicitly." He shook his head. "No, Kira, for all that Falcon himself might believe differently, his knowledge of engineering is nothing more than another warrior's tool for him. For you, fighting is a regrettable necessity, one which you'll abandon once the war is over. Falcon... for him, the battlefield is his life; it's what he's trained for all his life, and it's very likely what he'll keep on doing... until the very end."

"No matter how many people die in the process?" Kira said quietly.

"It's his job, Kira," Halberton said gently. "I won't tell you what to think any more than Falcon would, but I leave you with this observation: Falcon has far more direct experience with warfare than you, and he's studied it all his life. So I would suggest you keep in mind that if he believes this is the only way things can be done, he just may be right."

"He did nearly get us killed out there yesterday," Kira pointed out.

The admiral nodded slowly. "True; and I have no doubt your captain is going to talk to him about it. But it was a very uncommon mistake, Kira. If you don't believe me... then remember that he used to be one of the Earth Alliance's most feared enemies, and not just in the cockpit."

Archangel, Ken's Quarters

After coming off duty and leaving the Bridge in Natarle's hands, Murrue had realized it was time for a discussion she wasn't exactly looking forward to. It really ought to have come sooner, but after the mild chaos of settling details with the Odin, this was the first opportunity... especially considering that it wasn't a conversation she wanted to have in public.

Arriving at the ace's quarters, she hit the buzzer; and to her surprise, the hatch simply slid aside, as though he'd been expecting a visitor. And perhaps he was; he had to've known this was coming, after yesterday's debacle.

At first, she found it odd that the compartment's lights were off; but then she realized it made perfect sense. After all, what use did a man have for lights when his eyes weren't working? And besides, he probably found it soothing, even when he could see.

"Ken?" Murrue said tentatively. "We... need to talk."

"I know," his quiet voice said from somewhere within. "I screwed up yesterday, and nearly got us all killed. If Kira hadn't launched when he did, I don't know if even Odin's arrival would've saved us." As the hatch slid shut, a gloved hand touched a switch, and the lights came up, to reveal Ken sitting at his computer terminal, wearing his trench coat, by now battered from the Banadiya firefight and months of wear and tear.

"You're right," she said quietly. "You did screw up, and I'd like to know why. Everything hinges on our success, and if we all die, where does that leave us?"

Ken sighed, rubbing the older sword scar on his face. "I'm an arrogant man, Murrue," he said wearily. "You know that as well as I. I'm also unused to failure, and I've never had a high opinion of the Earth Forces." His other hand restlessly tapped the keyboard in front of him. "I mean, think about it: in the time I was with ZAFT, the only major battles we lost were the Bloody Valentine, the First Battle of Victoria, and the Battle of Endymion. Even after Alaska and Orb, I was just too used to the Earth Forces being useless... Stupid of me." He sighed. "Death comes to the overconfident... and that's exactly what nearly happened."

"Why didn't you have a backup plan?" she asked, eyes narrow; she didn't like having to ask these questions, but if he made a mistake that big when it all came to a head...

"I was complacent," he said simply. "Our earlier raids had gone like clockwork, and like too many generals in the past, I fell into the assumption that they would all go that way. Not that a backup plan would've done any good in that situation..."

"Excuses won't help," Murrue, speaking sharply for the first time.

"I'm not making excuses," he shot back irritably. "I'm well aware I should've had a backup plan, no matter how useless it would've been under the circumstances. It's a dangerous habit to fall into, and a stupid one at that. I'm accustomed to winning, Murrue, because that's what I usually do, and in the process I forgot that defeat teaches lessons far more valuable than success."

She slowly shook her head. "I never thought I'd hear you, of all people, talking like that. And you're right; what you did yesterday was stupid." Her head came up. "On the other hand, it's reasonable to say that we were just as stupid."

Ken raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"You're not the only one who was overconfident," she said flatly. "If I'd been thinking straight, I'd have realized we were putting a little too much trust in one man's plan. For that matter, Natarle's from a military family; she should've known better than to blindly follow you into that mess, without so much as a Plan B." She gave him a hard stare, which she felt confident he'd feel even without sight. "It won't happen again, understand me, Commander?"

"Perfectly, Captain," he said formally.

Murrue nodded. "Good." She relaxed the glare, and tilted her head curiously. "Now that we've got that out of the way, mind telling me why you were sitting there in dark, brooding? I doubt what happened yesterday could've dampened your determination that badly."

"Yesterday was the catalyst," he said slowly, "but it's not just that, no." His sightless face came up. "If I made that big a mistake in a mission as simple as that... how do I know I haven't made an even bigger mistake with the Shiva Option?"

She blinked. "You can't mean that."

Ken shrugged uneasily. "I don't know anything anymore, Murrue. I've walked this path for a long time now... yet most of the world thinks I'm crazy to believe I have any chance of pulling this off. And... how did I manage to drag kids like Kira and Miriallia and the others into this? I have no regrets about the Archangel, or my own people; we're all soldiers, that's what we do. But more people have gotten involved in this than ever should've even known about it... and now I'm not even sure if it's going to do any good. Can I really drag them through this, when it may well be in vain?"

Murrue closed her eyes. "Ken," she said gently, "if you start second-guessing yourself, it'll be even worse than the overconfidence from yesterday. Look, we've all looked over the plan; you and the Demons went over it backwards and forwards when you first came up with it, and the rest of us have been over it with a fine-toothed comb ever since you finally got around to explaining it. It's desperate, but even Natarle agrees that it's sound. Besides, you conceived it just after one of the worst personal defeats of your career, so I think overconfidence was unlikely to be involved." She shrugged. "And as for dragging people along with you, I think that's hardly fair. Oh, Kuzzey wasn't exactly suited to it; he stayed around only because the others did, and he left as soon as he understood he was out of place. And Tolle..." She sighed. "Tolle, I think, had read one too many adventure novels. But the others... Sai and Miriallia knew exactly what they were getting into, and Flay's understood ever since you saved her from Le Creuset. And Kira, well, he had the chance to back out after the Strike was nearly destroyed in the Marshall Islands. He didn't; and I don't think he came back just to follow your lead."

"That's certainly the truth," Ken muttered, and she chuckled.

"Yes, I suppose that's rather obvious. But Ken, the point is that, while you may've started all this, you're not 'dragging' anyone with you. The students made their own choice, and, as you said, the rest of us are soldiers. We'll see this through, one way or another."

The ace opened his mouth to say something in response, but the intercom beat him to it. "Falcon?" Natarle said, form the Bridge. "Are you there?"

"Affirmative, Natarle," he said, snapping upright. "What is it?"

"Is the Captain there with you?"

"Right here, Natarle," Murrue acknowledged. "Is something wrong?"

"I think you should both come to the Bridge," Natarle said grimly. "Something's happening in low orbit... and it looks big."

"On our way."

Archangel, Bridge

As soon as the pair arrived on the Bridge, Natarle vacated the command chair, and nodded at the display. "It looks like they're pulling the same sort of stunt ZAFT did at Alaska," she said without preamble. "They used the Victoria mass driver to launch mobile suit forces into orbit, and now they appear to be dropping them in on Carpentaria from above."

"It's Operation 8.8," Halberton said, from Odin's Bridge. "We'd heard about it, but we weren't sure what the objective was. Now we know."

Ken's fist clenched. "They're going to drive ZAFT out of the Carpentaria Base," he said quietly. "It's going to be a smashing victory for the Earth Alliance... or at least that's what it's going to look like." He turned to Murrue. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

She nodded, taking the center chair. "Zala will take the opportunity to withdraw ZAFT forces from the surface, on the pretense that it's a tactical retreat... when instead he's just getting troops out of the line of fire." Her eyes went to the ace. "How long do we have, at this rate?"

"I don't know," he said honestly. "Construction of GENESIS is probably already complete; but ZAFT's space forces will still be too strong for even Muruta Azrael to take on... which means Patrick might be able to use his own weapon with impunity."

"Captain Ramius," Andy Waltfeld said, from Eternal, "I think it's time we let up on the Earth Forces. Keep this up, and they'll be too weak. I think it's time we started softening up ZAFT. This has a real potential for getting out of control. The Earth Forces will think they're in complete control of the situation... until the moment GENESIS blows them away."

"Agreed," Murrue said quietly. "Ken, I think we're as ready as we're going to be. It's time to make our next move."

"I know," Ken concurred. "And I think we should-"

"Message coming in from Arkbird," Flay interrupted, "relayed by satellite from the dark side of the Moon. Should I put it on?"

Murrue nodded. "Please, Flay." She glanced at Ken. "I wonder what's up now?"

"I don't know."

A moment later, Sparky's voice came up on the speakers. "We got news, Boss," he began. "First of all, the Eyrie seems to be structurally intact; we can use the place, when it comes to it. Looks like the demolition charges did exactly what they were supposed to." He cleared his throat. "But we've got bad news, too: seems ZAFT has another unpleasant surprise up their sleeves, one we never even suspected: somewhere out there is a device codenamed 'GENESIS Alpha."

Ken hissed in surprise, looking for a moment like he'd been hit with an axe. Another one? But... Patrick, you've gone too far!

"We don't know where it is yet," Sparky went on, "but we've gotten word both the Junk Guild and Serpent Tail have taken an interest in the matter. Also... it appears ZAFT's built another nuclear-powered unit, something called ZGMF-X11A Regenerate. All we have is from communications intercepts, and it's not much, but what we do have is nothing good."

Murrue watched the ace carefully, and noted with some concern that every muscle in his body appeared to be vibrating. She'd never seen him look quite that enraged before... It's like the Bloody Valentine, she thought uneasily. If he loses control...

But he didn't. Slowly, the Grimaldi Falcon forced his body to relax, using the techniques Heinrich Metzinger had buried in his subconscious to reach for the unnatural calm that was his trademark. I can't lose control, he told himself firmly. Save it, for now; use your anger later, when you have need of the SEED. For now, you need absolute calm...

"All right," he said finally, voice level. "Our next target appears to have selected itself. Murrue, do you concur with that analysis?"

"We can't let a weapon like that go unchallenged, can we?" she said simply. "It'll help accomplish our primary objective, too; by doing this, we weaken ZAFT and prevent Zala from having more than one of those devices." She looked up at the main monitor. "Admiral Halberton, are you with us?"

Halberton nodded sharply. "Of course, Captain," he said firmly. "The thought of just one of those things is enough to make me lose sleep; two is a terrible thought."

Ken turned toward Flay's station. "Flay," he said, "send a message to Arkbird. Message begins: I don't think either of your ships can get here in time, Sparky, so I want you and Tom to stay where you are. Make sure your ships are ready, and prepare the Eyrie for reoccupation. In the meantime, try and get us as much information about GENESIS Alpha as you can; we need its location at the very least, and preferably its exact specifications, though I don't expect you to manage that much. And... find out whatever you can about this 'Regenerate'; I don't like the thought of ZAFT having more nuclear-powered machines. DiFalco out. Message ends." Without another word, he headed for the elevator.

"Where are you going?" Murrue called after him.

"To tell Doc Hibson that if I'm not back on flight status by the time we find GENESIS Alpha, I'm throwing him out the airlock without a suit."

Author's note: Archangel has picked up a new ally, in the form of a rogue escort ship, a rogue admiral, and a rogue mobile suit ace; now their forces are beginning to resemble something with the might to carry out the Grimaldi Falcon's plan. Yet fissures have begun to open between two of their members, even as another threat rears its head...

All right, I know, the chapter had a whole of talking and not a lot of anything going on; regrettably, there were things that needed explaining, and that took some time. Next chapter should have some action in it, though.

However, I should mention now that Chapter 42 will be a bit late, as I've decided it's time to update A Call to Arms. My apologies for the delay, but since that story hasn't been updated in nearly four months, I think I really should get in at least one chapter for it. -Solid Shark