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

A/N: I wish school isn't so taxing. Oh well…


Phase 22: The Desperate Fight

The water of the Suez

The arms of the Impulse were being slashed off with the fast reflex of Zeus. Lunamaria was trembling with fear clutching on the control. It was the end for her. There was no way she could keep up with his speed. Dearka took the next attack for her causing his ZAKU to be ripped into pieces. Lunamaria caught the falling cockpit of the ZAKU when she was about to be shot down by the Zeus who had a target lock on her Impulse. Her eyes widened in determination. A beautiful white gundam appeared extending its rainbow wings in the nick of time snatching the beam rifle of the Zeus from him.

"Shinn!" Lunamaria cried heaving a sigh of relief.

Liberate Destiny flew in between the Zeus and the Impulse. Shinn signaled Lunamaria to leave the rest to him and return to Minerva as he took out his beam shield to block the Zeus buying time for the Impulse to return to the opening hatch of Minerva.

"Dearka!" Yzak shouted as he rushed into the hangar.

Lunamaria opened the cockpit and saw Dearka panting in the seat. He wasn't hurt in anyway as the cockpit was intact. Yzak appeared and started hurling at Dearka for his rashness out in battle field. Dearka just laughed it off.

"Now we can only count on Asuka!" Yzak said looking up.

"Yeah, we can believe in him." Dearka agreed with him. Lunamaria smiled but she was still worried for his safety.

Meanwhile the Zeus and the Liberate Destiny was clashing over the water of the Suez.

"I won't let you destroy Minerva." Shinn hurled even though the comm. is disabled. He had wanted to rip the damn Zeus into pieces to avenge Kira but the main priority was the get the ship across the Julius to safety.

Minerva loaded its Tristan, Isolde with missiles. It fired at the Zeus before it could do some damage on Liberated Destiny upon orders by Yzak just as he returned to the bridge.

A red seed exploded in the mind of Shinn.

"Bastard!" He yelled over the comm.

"Interesting, he's much stronger than those two just now." Stanley commented to himself.

"Most probably, this was piloted either a new pilot from ZAFT since the former super ace Shinn Asuka had left ZAFT. The pilot of the Legend was killed. Who is he?"

"Who are you?" Stanley demanded over the comm.

"Just a pilot." Shinn replied as he attempted to slash its armaments. Shinn was rather frustrated as the Zeus managed to dodge most of his attacks.

At the same time Minerva had sailed right beside of the Julius as it attempted to fire at the opposite ship.

"Tristan, fire!" Mayu ordered in the bridge. Minerva was hit on its wing before they knew it. Yzak was too distract to be getting hit for this one.

"Our armament were 25 damaged Looks like they were well aware of the location of our weaponry." The crews reported. They felt another wave of impact. This time some part of the engines were hit just when they hit the water right behind the enemy ship.

"Evade in full speed. Make sure the rest of the engines will not be hit." Yzak yelled.

The Zeus wanted to go after Minerva but was blocked by the persistent Liberate Destiny. Both mobile suits suffered some damages. Shinn would not back down just like this. The Zeus shot down its beam rifle.

"Damn you. Try to destroy Minerva when it's vulnerable?" Shinn asked. Stanley on the other hand could hear him in his comm..

"So? It's a tactic to win." Stanley replied over the comm.. Shinn could hear Stanley.

"Are you happy to be able to defeat someone who is vulnerable? Is it fair?" Shinn asked watching the fleeing Minerva. The Julius was hit by Minerva's Isolde at the starboard. Both ships suffered some damages.

"I shall take you down today over here with this!" Shinn yelled as he recalled how the Zeus impaled the cockpit of the Strike Freedom killing Kira with it.

Both mobile suits were able to match one another in terms of speed and armament. The mobile suit of the URANUS were equipped with more sabers. The Zeus took out his beam rifle and shot at the Liberate Destiny which retaliated by using its beam rifle causing explosion around as the attack were cancelled out.

Shinn attempted to use the HiMAT at the Zeus joints as well as its cockpit. I'm not as kind as Kira-san. Stanley was surprised at its hidden plasma beam cannons and hip-mounted railguns which were aimed at his mobile suit.

"This is." Without thinking any further, he maneuvered the Zeus instantaneously before it was hit. The beams hit his allies instead. Shinn was shocked at his miss.

"Looks like you are unable to handle the HiMAT at the moment." Stanley's voice was heard over the comm.

Shinn glared at the Zeus fury with anger and his incompetence.

"Gladys Kancho, order a retreat!" Mayu's voice was heard over Stanley's comm..

"But…"

Gritting his teeth, Stanley ordered his remaining troop to retreat back to their ship as he realized he couldn't afford to lose the ship right now since he was acting without orders. Mayu ordered him to return to the ship as the old man was looking for him. His reinforcement was being taken down by the incoming Impulse in order to make sure that the Minerva was able to escape safely.

"Get out of my way!" Stanley used his dual beam sabers attempting to slash the Liberate Destiny who was blocking its way.

"Pilot of the beautiful mobile suit, we'll settle this one day." The Zeus returned to the open hatch of the Minerva.

"Wait!" Shinn had intended to chase after him but the Julius had submerged into the water before he could catch up with it. Both ship headed in opposite direction since then.

"Shinn!" Lunamaria flew to the front of the Liberate Destiny. Feeling shocked, Shinn shrugged off the arms of the Impulse and flew in the direction of the Minerva passing by it.

"SHINN!"

Yzak who was in the ship was feeling relieved but he was worried when he noticed the Liberate Destiny flew past them practically ignoring their presence. Lunamaria returned to the ship.

"Shinn is acting weird." Lunamaria reported as she rushed to the bridge.

"Shinn is feeling desperate." Lacus said suddenly grasping her ring from Kira.

"We have to stop him at all cost! He was not after the Julius, just where's he going?" Yzak shouted feeling pissed.


Kingdom of Scandinavia

Rey returned to the backstage passing by Nicol. Nicol was smirking. Rey felt that his heart was pumping very fast. He got a bad feeling towards him. He recalled the data given by Serene on Nicol.

"Eh? He was from ZAFT?" Rey asked before the performance.

"Yeah, I believe he'll be after Athrun Zala whom he thought is a coward." Serene folded her arms.

"Amendment of memory eh?" Rey said leaning against the wall recalling Stellar the extended who had her memory altered.

"We don't know what's their purpose here. I'll just keep an eye on him meanwhile." Serene informed Rey as she left to spy on Nicol.

Nicol came upon the stage in the wheelchair as the crowd applauded. Athrun was stunned to see Nicol on the stage. Cagalli was wondering what was going on with him. His reaction alerted Mwu at the back.

"Murrue. He could be the one." Mwu whispered into her ears.

"Asterisk?" Murrue asked worriedly. Both headed back to the Archangel immediately before anything bad happened.

Meanwhile Nicol saw Athrun with a stunned expression at the bottom of the stage that he smirked at his direction. Athrun looked down clenching his fist.

"Nicol." He mumbled. Cagalli heard what Athrun had said. She realized that the guy with green hair on the stage was a friend of Athrun, Nicol, the pilot of the Asterisk which almost destroyed the whole lot of them.

Nicol touched the keys of the piano and started playing. Everyone was engrossed the in sad tune Nicol had chosen to play. It was a direct opposite of what Rey had played. A tune with hopelessness.


A/N: Well, I shall end this chapter here. Stay tune for the next chapter! Please review!