Disclaimer: Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny does not belong to me.



Phase 20: The Battle of Endurance

Julius

"Why are you waking me up this early?" Mayu came to the bride rubbing her eyes. "Where's Luna-neechan?"

"She had left with important information of us." Stanley grinned. Mayu's mouth widened in shock. Suddenly, she smiled reluctantly, "So she betrayed me, just like oniichan." Mayu choked out with tears flowing down her eyes.

"Anyway, take care of the things in the ship while I shall have it out with the ship she belongs to." Stanley patted Mayu on her shoulders as he left for the hangar.


Underwater nearby

Kazuki was watching the water around the area of Suez. He noticed movement from the Julius from the transmission he received on his tracking device he hid somewhere on the ship when he was with the URANUS. He had left the tasks in the Kingdom of Scandinavia with his two partners over there. Archangel was not a problem. He had a talk with the princess of ORB. She agreed to offer assistance should any attack occur.

He believed Kingdom of Scandinavia would be safe in their hands. He knew he could count on the Archangel as this country had offered them help in the last war by harboring them after the kidnap of the princess by the Freedom. Cagalli was upset, her only kin was gone. All she could do was to take back her country and regained the peace they had lost.

"The Zeus, today I'll have a look of your power." Kazuki smirked while looking through his binocular.


The water of the Suez

"We have to change our plan a bit. The priority is to break out of the current predicament. We were being watched." Yzak yelled giving the orders. They were at a disadvantage as they did not know the numbers of the mobile suits which were deployed, and they could not risk using their ZAKU or Gouf Ignited as the enemy would be using their machines. Without communication, they wouldn't be able to differentiate between the enemy and their own party. Dearka would be fine as his ZAKU was of a different colour.

Lacus was looking out at the direction of the window. In darkness, she prayed that Kira would give them the power to break out of this situation.

"What?"

"That's what Yzak ordered, Shinn was to stay and observe the situation in the bridge and waited upon orders." Dearka answered.

"But…"

"Don't worry, Shinn we'll be fine." Lunamaria shouted over to Shinn. Shinn turned to her and smiled. He should trust Lunamaria. She was a red coat just like him. Just as Rey had said, Lunamaria was strong. Shinn nodded his head and he ran off to the bridge.

"Till Lacus-sama gives him the orders, we'll do our best." Dearka said encouraging Lunamaria. Lunamaria was feeling guilty for her carelessness.

"What's done is done. You had done a good job. There is probably some important information in the disk. We'll read it if we are able to survive through this, ok?" Dearka added. Lunamaria nodded her head while looking at the direction of the catapult where she would be launching.

Shinn reached the bridge feeling unsatisfied at the orders given. He looked at Lacus who seemed to be looking out at the window in daze. He sat behind Yzak and folded his arms. He would wait and see. He felt a little worn out as he yawned. He had not been sleeping well since his dream with Kira and the departure of Lunamaria to spy on the enemy. He was looking at the back of Lacus who was sitting in the front sadly.

Jamming warheads was shot. A black ship was approaching Minerva. They were commencing the battle. A number of ZAFT mobile suits and mobile armours were being launched.

"Looks like they are able to grasp the knowledge to use our machines. They were able to pilot it as though they are experienced." Yzak clenched his fist in frustration.

Both Dearka and Lunamaria felt the vibration and proceeded to launch consecutively. Lunamaria chose the Blast Silhouette. As long as she was able to shoot down the enemy missiles to cover the ship while it escaped out of the border of Suez. Both Dearka and Lunamaria engaged in the battle with the enemy machines immediately upon launching. As both were of elite level, at the moment they were performing well taking down quite a number of the enemy mobile suits.

"Isolde, fire!" Yzak yelled to his crews. The missiles hit a part of the Julius but not able to damage it.

Meanwhile, the Zeus launched. Pulling out its beam saber it attempted to slash the Impulse which was hovering near him. Lunamaria dodged the attack in the nick of time. Dearka fired its missiles at the new mobile suit that just launched.

"It's the mobile suit from that time." Shinn gritted his teeth in anger recalling how it impaled the cockpit of the Strike Freedom from the back as he was about to reach Kira. He wanted to launch immediately but was stopped by Yzak. Lacus could feel a sense of fury coming from Shinn. She thought Shinn had encountered the mobile suit somewhere and it must have done something which caused Shinn to get so mad that he would kill him in any second.

"Don't Shinn, I know what you are thinking, but if you fight so rashly, you'll die… along with us." Yzak glared at Shinn recalling the manual of the Liberate Destiny regarding the defective N-Jammer Canceller in the mobile suit.

"Sit!" Yzak ordered. Shinn was rather pissed off that he sat down.

"Stay calm and observe, Shinn. I sincerely hope the two will be able to hang on until the time is right. Find the weakness of Zeus first." Yzak said. Shinn nodded in response. His senior was actually giving him advice. The Julius fired its Tristan at them. Yzak and the rest felt the impact on the hit.

"Everyone, hang on! Till then." Yzak yelled.

Dearka fought hard to support Lunamaria who was busy dodging the quick attack from the Zeus. She couldn't change her pack as the comm. to the Minerva was disabled.

"Send Lunamaria the Force Silhouette!" Shinn requested as he observed the battle.

"The advantage of the Zeus is its speed. It's as fast as the Destiny. There must be an opening. Lunamaria, Dearka-san, hang on."

"Minerva is a fast ship, if we want to shake them off we had to bypass them. That's when we were able to sail in full speed to where ORB is." Yzak patted crossed his fingers as they were hit by another wave of impact. They decided to change their plan to proceed to the Orb first to find out their situation.

"Tristan, fire! Port 35, evade."

Shinn watched on closely in anger. He knew Lunamaria and Dearka won't be able to hold out much longer as another batch of the ZAKU and the Gouf were launched. They were even attacked in the bottom of the water as well.

"I'm going out no matter what." Shinn walked off in a huff. Yzak and Lacus did not stop him. They trusted him to be able to take them out for safety.

"Shinn Asuka, Liberate Destiny going out!" Shinn announced although the comm. wasn't working. It was a habit anyway. A white version with silver torso of the Destiny launched unleashing the rainbow colours of wings of light on its six-winged dragoon equipped wings which resembled a white knight with rainbow wings.


Kingdom of Scandinavia

The crowd comprising of the higher-ups of the Scandinavia government as well as the crews of Archangel assembled as the audience seats in the concert halls. Murrue and Mwu were standing at the back near the door watching. Mwu had an arm over Murrue assuring that things would turn out right.

Athrun and Cagalli were seated in the middle row of the theatre. They had not been talking since that night. Athrun took the initiative to touch her hands.

"Trust me, I'll take ORB back and regain the peace. I'll not let anyone else die again." Athrun said in determination. Cagalli nodded.

"Promise me that you'll survive this war." She whispered softly. Athrun nodded as he kissed her in her forehead.

"Athrun, you are my only kin, my everything. Kira was already gone and even Lacus. Please, I can't lose you." Cagalli hugged Athrun. Athrun nodded as he hushed Cagalli down.


A/N: End of phase. Next chapter will be a recap. See you soon. Please R&R