NOTE:

"Doryaaaaaaaaaa!": normal talking

"Charge!": special case

'Darn!': thoughts

GWA HA HA HA! : Giant creature speech

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING!

Please… read and review

With this chapter… let's just say I'm reintroducing the Alliance and what they are truly capable of. You've all seen the weak side of the Alliance (Militia Soldiers), now let's see them from the STRONG side. This chapter also serve to better explain the current technological capability of this AU CE.

000000000000

11:45 PM

Alliance Outpost, the Artemis Base.

It's a secret triple maximum secure facility in Xichuan… it's a prison. And no one has ever got out.

No one.

Two hulking alliance soldiers were punching a prisoner senseless, taking turns when one gets tired. Finally, after several hundred punches, the torturer stopped and grabbed hold of the prisoner's raven colored hair. His face was barely recognizable, what's with bruises covering his face and all his lips swollen, covering the fact that almost all of his teeth were ripped out. "Don't you think this is a bit much?"

"Fool. He's a zoan. If we don't do this much, he won't feel anything."

"But he's a kid." The sympathetic torturer got a better look of the prisoner's face. "And he's lost consciousness."

"Kid, smicdht, I'll say it again. He's a ZOAN. Advanced of that kind has insane healing properties. There's no such thing as overkill." The second torturer approached the bound prisoner and gave him a good kick in the head, sending him bowling down on the blood smeared floor, still tied to his chair. "'Sides, I don't know how smart these Advanced are, but he must be pretty stupid. With all that fiasco of a Zaft invasion in that city near Shanxi, this place in full alert… knowing that, he tried a solo charge into our base on his own." The torturer bent down and gloated on top of the unconscious prisoner. "You're a real tough guy aren't you?"

The first torturer merely snorted. "He ain't listening. I told you he's unconscious."

"Right. Let's save the next torture tomorrow. By then he should've been healed enough."

And then the two torturers left and locked the prison cell. As soon as the lock clicked, the prisoner opened his green eyes. And then, he calmly get up and put the bound chair on the sitting position. As he did, his initially swollen face began to regenerate at a very rapid rate. By the time he got back to sitting position, his face had become unblemished as if he had never been beaten senselessly. And then he twitched and noticed that his teeth were still crushed. He made several choking sound, and then what's left of his teeth break away, and moments later, a new set of teeth literally grow back in an instant.

Athrun Zala blew a sigh of relief. The first phase of his plan is finished.

11:55 PM

First, Athrun pressed his ears to the door, listening. The footsteps are leaving. There will be a 30 seconds window before the next shift coming. He pulled out a pair of iron cords he stabbed inside himself a while ago and then began picking the lock with it. 20 seconds later, the door is unlocked. The shift is coming. 4… 3… 2… 1… Athrun opened the door, grabbed the person by the mouth, preventing him from screaming, and then slug him unconscious. A minute later, Athrun came out wearing the warden's attire. Now, this place is divided into sections. With this place being a maximum security facility to move from one section to another require facial recognition. The Checkpoint officers memorized the faces of every officers in this place, so that, even if someone were to try to escape using the soldier's clothes, they'll be recognized instantly. Luckily, Athrun had prepared for something like that.

The officer he just slugged was Cliff Jenkins. A few days ago, Mr. Jenkins had a rather unfortunate run in where he ate a meatloaf in his favorite cantina. The meatloaf was loaded with slow acting sleeping agents, mixed with some laxative. He fell asleep in the John's, and remain so for 6 hours, enough time for the cook, Nichol, to get a faceprint of his face using a bread dough. From the faceprint, Athrun created a mask of Mr. Jenkins. A mask he's now using. Regrettably, he cannot immediately leave this section. Mr. Jenkins was supposed to finish his shift in an hour. And so, an hour later, Jenkins would've reached checkpoint and reported that there's nothing going on.

At least, that's how it supposed to be.

But, there's a slight complication. Athrun had to accelerate his timetable… not that he wasn't prepared for it…

Earlier this afternoon, the prisoners were given fried rice. However, one of the prisoners, Mr. Riven Hardy, a paramecia with the ability to spew… uhm… soap bubbles, had a slight slow acting digestion problem which, at this very night, complicates into a very severe allergic reaction. Apparently, something he ate disagrees with him, courtesy of Athrun. So when his cell start puking bubbles, Mr. Cliff Jenkins, AKA Athrun, was well within his rights to get in there and drag him out, and leave his shift early under the pretense of get this stupid advanced to the ward before he, literally, cleaned the whole place slick with his soap bubbles. The Guards at the checkpoint was more than agree to leave Jenkins to do the 'dirty' work.

11:57 PM

After dropping Mr. Hardy in the ward (he start puking bubbles from his ears as well, to the panic of the doctors) Athrun quickly moved to the corner and waited for Mr. Nendry. Ames Nendry is a janitor, a fatso, and a bit of glutton. Without fail, Mr. Nendry always moved to the corner to have his midnight snack. One whack to his head, and Athrun, wearing mr. Nendry's face walked out of the corner, eating his giant sandwich. He was hungry anyway. Regenerating his face and teeth took a lot of his stamina. He impersonated Mr. Nendry's wide girth by stuffing some mop and other stuff into his stomach. Another checkpoint, another face check. He's almost out of the prison cell. The way out is guarded by 10 soldiers, put on rotations. They're the only ones allowed to open the door.

Now these people… they're nothing like the spear wielding, arrow shooting Militias. They belong to the 10th Division, and they are heavily armed, and dangerous, even for an Advanced. Unlike the Militia, the Regular Assault Troopers wear uniform thick body armor, colored in the black and white of the Alliance with padded rigid hardpoints armor plates made of tear resistant materials that can stop a knife – not exactly effective since Zaft weren't attacking them with pocket knife. They've underwent extensive training, and they are battle hardened elite. But even more dangerous, is the weapons they're equipped with.

It's general knowledge that for all their frailty and lack of special ability, the Alliance Naturals had one thing they can be proud of: they are the masters of gunpowder, explosives and artilleries. The Forge Corps legionnaire had toiled night and day trying to one up the naturals in this area, but… they're just outmatched. The naturals knew more about gunpowder than they ever could ever learn in a dozen lifetimes. Heck, the Naturals had a massive head start when they used to be the main army of the Empire, back in the time of the Two Emperors.

When the Tristan was just a 10 inch caliber cannon firing fused cannonballs, they answered with armor piercing explosive shells and by standardizing the rifling of all their cannons, allowing their 16 Inch Gottfried cannon (AN: Picture the USS Missouri, Iowa Class battleship main cannons, if you will.) to shoot at incredible range in an almost straight trajectory. When Zaft developed the revolving rapid firing Isolde Artillery 15 inch cannon, they answered by modifying their short barreled Hellfire Mortar to shoot Helldart Rockets, weaponized high explosive firecrackers with flashy destructive prowess; it outranged their so called artillery cannon by at least twice their range, not to mention they can be moved easily by a small two men team, a stark difference of their Isolde which require an entire company to set up. And they still don't know how to deal with that 12 foot caliber, High-Explosive Armor-Piercing 100 ton house-sized cannonshell firing monster of a supergun, the Lohengrin. He tried to counter that by inventing the Tanhausser but… compared to Lohengrin they might as well shooting peas. Thank God there are very few of the Lohengrins left in this world and the manner of its construction had been lost throughout the ages.

It is undeniable that firearms are the Alliance forte. However, even artilleries had its limits. Their size and mass make them very hard to transport, and their maintenance cost a fortune. A fortune that Zaft can ill afford, which is the main reason of their massive difference in artillery power. The same can be said, to a less problematic scale, to the Alliance. They have the resources needed to afford those artilleries. Where there are cannons around, it's a certifiable assurance that the battle is going to be HELL for the Knights. But even the Alliance had their limits and it's not like they're available in every battle. So how to solve this?

The next logical step: they minimize it and make the cannons smaller.

The 'Dagger' Musket Assault Rifle had a compact design with five barrels, light enough that even naturals can wield it with one hand (not recommended due to harsh kickback), named so due to the relatively oversized bowie knife bayonet attached on the bottom of the five barrels. It is a versatile death dealing weapon that had killed many Knights with a well-aimed shot. Manually fuse triggered, it's capable of firing, and reliably kill, 5 times, once from each barrel before needing reload. They are the standard issue for every member of the Alliance Regular Troopers from the 10th division. But that's not all the troopers have: they also carry a uniform riot shield, which carries all their ammunition and supplies attached behind a one inch thick metal shield. Couple that with three grenade sticks strapped to their chest, a short sword on their hip, and one of them, with a portable helldart rocket launcher attached to the underside of his rifle, an iron sight attachment, and a pair of triple barreled flintlock sidearm mounted on both waist; is undoubtedly a Sergeant, the battle scarred elite veteran soldier that led companies of the Troopers into battle.

They are the elite soldiers: Troopers that can more than go toe to toe with Knights. A far cry different than the Militias that still fight with bows, arrows, spears, or their personal weapons. Not that the Troopers don't know how to fight with primitive weaponry when needed. After all, they originated from the Militia. Win enough battles and they get promoted. Once they got promoted they get better, standardized weaponry and equipment, so why would they bother with inferior weapons? And these guards? Well… they're trained professionals and they've been instructed to never leave their posts under any circumstances.

Well… any circumstances except something rather… devastating.

"3… 2… 1…"

At exactly 00:00 AM, the explosives that Nichol had been covertly planting inside the base exploded all at once, and the doors of every cell sprang open. Within moments, every prisoner went into a riot. Normally, this facility held more than enough men to adequately hold back a prison riot. But, due to the recent attack on Shanxi, the Artemis base had to dispatch some of their men to reinforce the Alliance troopers in that region. What's worse, a few hours ago, a convoy carrying fresh supply of Troopers from the Triplet Fortress was attacked by two mysterious knights, one of them was a water knight (Yzak), another one was a Fire Knight (Rusty). The two managed to wipe them all out wholesale. Thusly, the facility was undermanned.

The ten guards were getting reports of prisoners rioting everywhere, and the staffs were getting overrun. They had no choice but to leave their posts. 8 Soldiers left, including the Sergeant, leaving just two. Athrun smirked. Good. Two is a lot easier. Now, the door they're guarding. Like the rest of the checkpoints in this place, it will only open for a select few, that is, they need facial confirmation of the guards and only the guards, and the guards need to be awake too. No one else is allowed to walk in or out. So, Athrun quickly knocked one unconscious and the remaining one… well…

Athrun knocked the door, a peephole opened, and Athrun shoved the guard's face, with his eyes opened. The guard from the other side nodded, and then the door opened, revealing the said squirming guard with his mouth stuffed, and Athrun pinching his arm painfully so that his eyes were wide open. A few moments later, Athrun had made a short work of the guards on the other side, which, thankfully, are not as strict as one the other side. After all, a prison was supposed to keep people in, not out. Now that was over and dealt with, Athrun closed the door, but leave it unlocked. Just in case some of the prisoner managed to make it out. Plus, he's only after one prisoner at the moment.

This one prisoner was a troublemaker. He was locked together with Athrun. Arrested on the same day too. The plan was that he supposedly helped the other prisoner to make an even bigger riot. But, somehow, he managed to piss off the head warden, which happens to be the head of this facility, and now he's been given the 'special' treatment. He's the reason Athrun had to accelerate his timetable. Athrun sniffed the air several times. With his sharpened senses, he caught the scent he had planted earlier, and then followed the trail.

The scent came from the two torturer's bloodied fists, laced by Athrun's blood, thereby, his scent still remains. Athrun was tortured under orders from the Head. And so, they're most likely reporting their actions to the boss. These two were his head torturers. And most likely, they too will be responsible to torture the Troublemaker. Quickly following the scent, Athrun traced it to a chamber. They posted 20 or so guards in there, and they didn't leave, even with the riot that's happening. At this stage, Athrun forgo subtlety and resort to beat the crap out of everyone that gets in his way, and so he marched straight in the open.

The guards looked at this boy and think: 'Is this guy mental?' Not a moment too soon, they lit up their guns, sparks burst out as the gunpowder ignited and in a single explosive flashes of smoke the guards riddled Athrun with bullets, tearing his body to pieces in a series of explosions when each bullet hits home with the force of a small cannon. When the smoke settled, they were welcomed with the horrifying sight of the unscathed Athrun, save for his shredded prisoner attire. In horror, they fired a second salvo, and without waiting for the smoke to diminish, followed swiftly by the third salvo, and the fourth, and the final fifth salvo. And then silence as they waited. Normally, no knight can survive even a single salvo from 100 shots… but…

Athrun simply shrugged as he walked out of the smoke, his clothes shredded and his unscathed chest was in full show.

Every Zaft knight knew the weakness of the trooper's musket rifle is the lengthy reload time. It took 7 seconds for them to reload.

Within 6 seconds, Athrun had downed 9 of them, but the last one, the Sergeant, managed to reload faster than the others. He quickly aimed his rifle at Athrun's head just as the Knight is right in front of him, he desperately fired five times, unloading all his ammo. Two shots missed, and the remaining three hit his neck, shoulder and cheek, tearing them away with each explosion, and they are regenerating before the Sergeant's eyes as he looked upon them. Gritting his teeth, the Sergeant lit the fuse of his portable Rocket launcher and aimed it at Athrun's head. The rocket zoomed straight to Athrun's head, and with a loud bang, Athrun's head was engulfed by a giant multicolored pyrotechnic and flying sparks. And yet, when the smoke subsided, the Sergeant looked in horror as Athrun's upper portion was burnt to crisp with his burnt tendon showing, but he's still alive. Even more bizarre, his head literally regenerated before his very eyes. Screaming wildly, he took out both of his triple barreled sidearm and fired wildly, unloading all of his six bullets until he's only clicking empty guns. And still Athrun just smile and keep on coming… literally.

"W…What are you?" The Sergeant can feel his pants are getting flooded. By the time the boy was right in front of him, his sinews had reconnected and his mouth had just finished forming lips over the teeth gum.

"…it's… complicated." With another punch, Athrun socked the Sergeant so he can join the rest of his team in the la-la land. And then, with a kick, Athrun knock the door off its hinges, revealing the troublemaker, being tied up, and he reeks of oil. This is the special treatment. The said boss, the Head Wraden planned to burn him alive.

The Head Warden was a hulking yet elderly man, stood taller than the two torturers who beat Athrun halfway to death, but leaner and less burly. The same torturers were now jawdropping as they saw the boy who was supposedly had been beaten to a bloody pulp is now standing in front of them without a scratch. The Head Boss glared angrily at Athrun's intrusion, as well as seeing piles of his men beaten to the inch of their lives behind him. "Wh-" the Head Boss didn't get to finish what he said, because Athrun completely ignored him.

Athrun angrily glared not at the boss, but at the bound prisoner. "…what the hell is wrong with you?"

"Uhh…" The prisoner nervously looked at the angry Athrun. He did screw up. Big time.

Athrun looked at the Boss, who, understandably, was as confused as hell. The Boss, as in the Head Warden, an elderly man with graying hair and large flock beard. His left eye was eyepatched, and the scars beneath the eyepatch indicate that it was viciously gouged out by something beastly. A cigarette hanging on his finger, apparently he intended to lit the flammable material drenching the troublemaker with it. But Athrun need not to ask what happened that made his jail mate deserve such fate. For all he know he may well deserve it. He saw the occupants of that room: a half naked girl, several surprised guards. Already he got the whole picture. Athrun looked at the bewildered boss. "Who was she?"

"W… What?"

Athrun pointed accusingly at the girl. "Who was she? Your sister, your wife… what?"

"She's my daughter." In all confusion, the boss answered dumbly.

"Daughter." Athrun nodded as he turned angrily again at the prisoner. "What is it with you and GIRLS!?"

"Hey. Can't help it if I'm that dashing. Plus, I'm in love dude." The prisoner smirked. Now that one notices, he's also half naked.

"In love!? What about miss London, three months ago!?"

"WHAT!?" Now the half naked girl screeched in rage.

The Prisoner gasped in fright. "Oi! Athrun! Athrun! Rescue sex! After all we both hate this guy so…"

"You know what, Mr. Boss sir. Maybe I came here a little early. You go ahead and burn him please, at least that'll teach this certified playboy a lesson!"

"WAAAH! No, no! Athrun! Come on man! Be serious already!" the prisoner squealed in horror.

"Who the fuck are you?" The Head Boss overcome his confusion and glared at Athrun.

"Sorry. I don't have time for this. Dearka!" Athrun run towards the prisoner and shield him.

The prisoner, Dearka, smirked and concentrated, activating his power. In an instant, Dearka with his gravity control generated a gravity well that suck in almost everything in that room towards him. Not enough to suck in humans, but a few things get sucked in; such as the guards' weapons and other unlatched objects. They flew towards Dearka with such speed that they would've pierced him to death, but Athrun covered him, and they pierced him instead. And then Dearka turned it off, and suddenly, everyone in that room found themselves relieved of their weapons. The weapons were embedded in Athrun's body, who quickly removed and disarmed them all one by one as his wounds regenerated near instantaneously.

The head Warden gaped. "W… Wha…"

"Long story." Athrun looked around and noticed something else. The Half naked girl had the half part removed. Athrun glared at Dearka, who shook his head, feigning innocence. But, as Athrun locked the doors behind them to prevent any stragglers, Dearka moved in to clothe the girl. A loud slap later, and the tanned blonde returned with a hand imprint on his face.

"I guess I deserve that."

"Believe me when I say you got off lightly." Athrun turned to the girl, now clothed with Dearka's clothing. "If you train your skills as much as your one night stands, you'll be Hakutenkun in no time. Now where is it!?"

Dearka motioned at the Head boss. Athrun moved in and grabbed the Head Warden by the coat, and in an incredible show of force, the boy lifted the enormous head warden, a man over twice his own size, off the ground as if he weigh nothing. "Where?"

"Where what?"

"The secret super weapon. The fourth superweapon! Where is IT!?"

The Head Boss gasped upon hearing the revelation of what this boy knew. It was supposed to be classified above top secret! The Head Boss motioned his two Torturers to act, but Dearka wouldn't have that. He charged them head on and once they reach a certain radius from him, he pressed his hand down, and suddenly, the two torturers were pressed to the ground under their own weight, amplified a few dozen times due to increased gravity. Dearka remain in vicinity to ensure they remain locked in place.

The girl, upon seeing this, shrieked in fright. That's when everyone remembered there's a woman in vicinity.

"Young lady can you run?" Athrun gently addressed the poor girl.

The girl blushed a bit seeing Athrun's handsome face, and nodded eagerly. Athrun moved as he carried the Head Warden with one arm, kicked the desk, destroying it, revealing piles of money. "Take what you need and go! Leave this place. Go to some place like… Orb. You'll be safe there! Go! SCRAM!"

Within moments, the girl did just that… but not before giving Dearka another slap in the face, much to his chagrin. "Aww… men…"

"I won't talk! I'd rather die before talking!" the Head Warden roared angrily.

"Yeah, well, that could be a problem. We don't want to kill you." Athrun throw the Head Boss into Dearka's gravity field and thus the Gravity field pressed him down, just like his two torturers.

"Yo, Athrun. What now?" Dearka steadily maintain the gravity field.

"Relax. The weapon is here. In this room." Athrun scanned the surroundings. "There's no safer place in this facility other than here."

"Hngh! Go ahead and search all your life! You'll never found it! BWAGYAGYAGYAGYAGYA!" The head warden laughed rowdily.

Athrun looked at a peculiar giant metallic safe. It's incredibly thick, and it occupies an entire wall.

"BWAGYAGYAGYAGYA! You'll never be able to open the lock! BWAGYAGYAGYA-" The Head Warden rowdy laughter was stopped when Dearka bashed his head with a punch.

"Was it just me, or his laughter really is annoying?"

Athrun tried to get a feel of the safe as the Head Warden watched gleefully with his one remaining eye (albeit blackened). Athrun chuckled as he figured it out. "Of course." Athrun plant both of his palms on the safe. "There's no key or lock… you need to open this safe… with pure brute force." And then, after taking a deep breath, his fingers sank into the safe door and Athrun easily flipped it open, much to the Head Warden's disbelief. But once the safe was opened, Athrun and Dearka had another thing coming.

It's empty.

"BWAGYAGYAGYAGYA! You think you'll be that easy? BWAGYGYAGYA-" And Dearka socked him again to shut him up. God he just hate that laughter.

Athrun frowned in deep thought, but then, he smirked. "That's right. The Super Weapons is also a Sacred Weapon… it's not something one put into a safe… there should be a shrine… or at least… a sacred ground…"

"BWAGYAGYAGYAGA! You'll never find it! BWAGYA-" Another sock from Dearka. He's real tough glutton for punishment alright.

Athrun thought of the only place one can hide a shrine here. He looked at the safe and nodded in understanding. He grabbed the giant safe, took a deep breath… and a moment later, he lifted the giant safe off the ground, practically tearing it off the wall.

This time, the Head Warden no longer laughed as his jaw was hung in horror.

Athrun dropped the colossal safe away, and saw a small hatch leading downstairs. He opened it and went down. The Head Warden was too shocked to comment anything.

Down in that hole, Athrun quickly knew he was right. Torches lit up to light the pathway, and as move forward he can see a shrine in front of him, enshrining a… sarcophagus? The weapon is inside? Athrun checked the Sarcophagus and realized he was right. This is the weapon. But for a moment, he paused. This is a shrine, and that, for all he knows, that could be someone's coffin. He took a few steps back, and following a chinese tradition, kowtow 3 times, bow down on both of his knees and bashing his head to the ground in respect. And then he felt something and then he opened the sarcophagus with one push, and the lid of the said sarcophagus smashed the ground as it fell. Athrun looked inside and… he saw a single sword. Athrun took it and examined it.

It's a very fine sword. Definitely not some run on the mill sword…

Athrun swing it and cut the sarcophagus. The Sword broke, as well as the Sarcophagus.

Pity it wasn't the weapon. "This is not the superweapon!" Athrun declared. Already he can hear howls of laughter from the Head Warden.

"BWAGYAGYAGYAGYA! You think we'll just let you have it!? B-" This time, Dearka didn't even let him start the second round.

Athrun smiled and nodded. Naturally. The previous three was hard. He'll be sorely disappointed if the fourth one was this easy. And then, Athrun caught sight of the lid. He took the lid, but then stopped.

Athrun eyed the lid suspiciously and then he used both hands to lift it. The boy was shocked when even he, with all his strength, still need to struggle to lift the lid with both of his hands. "…could it be?" Athrun gritted his teeth and lifted the lid, bring it up, much to Dearka's confusion and the Head Warden's horror.

"Whoa… I hope you haven't desecrated someone else's grave. Heard the Chinese are very intolerant about it."

"No one is tolerant about desecrating a grave. It's just… this lid… I had to use both of my hands just to lift it!"

"You? You of all people? Damn. That thing must be really heavy."

Athrun studied the lid, and then he saw through it. He lifted the lid, and then, with a great force, he casted it down. As expected, it sank deeply, and the lid… or at least, its outer stony crust shattered, revealing a metallic coffin.

"That coffin is the 4th Super Weapon?"

"No… it's just like the Sarcophagus… this 4th weapon must be very powerful that it require layers after layers of defense just to keep it hidden…"

The Head Warden didn't say anything.

Athrun take a look at this second coffin. Now the feeling felt even stronger than before. But Athrun hold his ground and showed some respect to the coffin. And then he attempted to open the coffin only to find the lid was soldered shut.

"BWAGYA-" Another whack from Dearka who are swiftly running out of patience. "You know what, how bout if I just bash this guy's head to the coffin till it breaks?"

"Hash it, Dearka. Things like this take time. You should know that above all else. Remember the hell we went through to get the Dragon Buster?" Athrun smirked and then, once he finished preparing, Athrun quickly tear through the coffin, and with pure brute force of a zoan, he rip the steel coffin open like a tin foil. And then, the two Zaft Knights beheld the content of the coffin… a glutinous black and red liquid. Athrun blinked several times.

"W…Wha… what the heck is that?" Dearka gulped. The First Superweapon is a sword, the second super weapon is a pair of gauntlets and greaves, the third weapon is a pair of heavy cannon tonfa… and the fourth Superweapon… is a… goo?

"…we don't know what to make of it either." Athrun and Dearka turned to the Head Warden. This time he wasn't laughing. That face of his… he was mortified. Not only because he had failed his charge to guard it, but also apparently, because of his apparent lack of understanding regarding the said weapon. "We thought it was some kind of a material. We tried to forge it into various stuff, a sword, an armor, even a cannon… it didn't work. That sucker was really heavy too. Several of my men were crushed to death just by getting showered by that muck."

"Finally you ended up enshrining it in multi layered coffin." Athrun nodded. "But… how come you don't know how to use it? Is this not your creation?"

The liquid pulsed at the comment. This attracted Athrun's attention.

"Damn if I know. The brass just came to us and told us to guard it with our lives."

"Wahaha! Sucks to be you! Hahaha!" Dearka gloated in front of the Warden's face.

But the Warden mustered all the strength he can get and headbutt the brat by the nose.

"Ouch!" Dearka back away with blood churning out of his nose.

"That's for my daughter you son of a bitch!" The Warden roared.

"And it serves you right." Athrun stated the cosmic truth to Dearka. He looked at the liquid. He needed to carry this thing in a tangible form. There's no way he can be seen carrying coffin around. "Alright. Can you pass me some chalk?"

Understanding what Athrun was up to while still holding his bleeding nose, Dearka picked a chalk and hand it over to Athrun. And then the boy began drawing on the floor. Some kind of a… runic circle, with various markings and symbols.

"Right. I think this will do." Athrun motioned everyone to stand back. He clapped his hands together and the slammed it to the ground, on top of the runic circle. All the sudden, the chalk drawn runic circle glows blue and flashes of electricity coursed through the circle and they are coursing towards the coffin.

"What in the blazes of seven hells is he…"

"He's transmuting it." Dearka smirked seeing the dumb shock on the Head Warden's face. It was priceless. "He's using the Transmutation circle to transform the weapon and the coffin directly into any form he desired. That is Alchemy. One of the magical branches of the Magia Colegia. And this is Athrun Zala, the Steel Elemental Knight, master of all minerals and metals. See if your blacksmith ever thought of that, hah!"

The coffin was electrocuted several times, and for a moment, Athrun can see a small part of the coffin began to unravel… but a moment later, everything stopped.

And the coffin was unscathed as if nothing happened.

"Well that was anti climatic." Dearka and the Head Warden echoed.

Athrun, even after seeing he failed what he tried to do remained enthusiastic. "…my, my… this guy has quite the temper."

"Temper?"

"He's prideful. He's very prideful. I was trying to transmute that coffin into something more manageable… a simple giant sword… but… he stopped me. He will not suffer to be carried in an inferior vessel. Right, Mr. Warden?"

The Warden had to grudgingly nod. "You damn right. That shit was really troublesome. We learned the hard way that thing has quite the temper. We put it in the stone vault once and the next day we found it has smashed through it. Don't ask me how."

Athrun nodded. That explains the intricate design of the steel coffin and the regal shrine he saw down there. "In that case… I'll just have to make the transmutation circle… a tad stronger." And by stronger, it means Athrun grabbed a knife and slit his palm. And then he let the blood flow out. What's terrifying is that the blood seem to be alive. Athrun didn't move from his spot, but the blood moved by itself, drawing an even larger and even more intricate transmutation circle all by itself. Smoke rose up when Athrun's blood literally carved the floor, showing it was extremely corrosive. He even combined several circles into the construction.

Just then, they heard noises from outside. The troops are getting near their place. "Athrun, you better hurry up!"

"Give me a few seconds…" Athrun concentrated, clasped his hand together, and once again slammed his palms to the circle, and this red electricity coruscated through the entire runes and glow brightly red. The red electricity surged and engulfed the coffin multiple times. Sweat flooded Athrun's being as the power drain of this transmutation was murder. But, through his sweat trickled green eyes, Athrun can see his effort bear fruit: the coffin finally transformed.

When the process was finally over, Athrun looked at his handiwork. The steel coffin had been transmuted into a giant elegant black claymore, with intricate ornaments decorating it. And yet it looked incredibly strong, and had lost none of its sharpness. A distinct feature of this sword, is the face of a woman with serpent hair encrusted near its hilt. The black liquid contained in the coffin has been super compressed inside that sword. Athrun picked it up and struggled to lift it with both hands. He finally holstered it on his back. He'll figure out this gooey monster later. "Okay. Time to go. We got what we came for."

The Head Warden grunted. "Hah! Dream on! In my 20 years handling prisoners I've never let anyone get out of here alive!"

"Well, yes. But we'll get a hostage with us." Athrun smiled.

"BWAGYAGYAGYA! You think my men and I won't dare to shoot one of our own?"

"I don't think your men will shoot." Athrun grinned. "Seeing that it is YOU who will be our hostage." By that, it means, the two intended to use the Head Warden as the hostage.

The Head Warden will not back down that easy. He has his pride, God Damn it! "I'd rather die than be your ticket out of here!"

"Of course you would. But…" Athrun quickly draw a transmutation circle on a piece of steel plank and made a mouth-strap with thick padlock. He quickly strapped the Head Warden with it, rendering him unable to talk. "…your men don't need to know that."

And with that, Dearka socked the Head Warden's two aides unconscious and Athrun also transmuted giant shackles from the safe to securely lock the two torturers in place. He needed only one hostage. No sense dragging three when you need only one.

Carrying the giant warden on his back, Athrun headed straight not to the exit, but he backtrack to the door that leads to the prison cell.

"Uhh… did I miss something?"

Ignoring Dearka's inquiries, Athrun keep his pace and the two finally arrived in front of the gate that leads to the prison.

"What are you doing?" Dearka looked in confusion as Athrun merely waited behind the said door, looking at his pocket watch ticking seconds after seconds in his hand.

"Within 20 seconds, the rioting prisoners would've reached this door, where a group of Troopers are waiting for them, preparing to give them a fusillade of gunfire."

Just as Athrun had said, beyond the door to the prison cells, a battalion of Alliance Regular Troopers bunker down, guns at the ready as the noise from the rioting prisoners grew steadily closer.

Athrun revealed something in his hand. A vial containing soap bubbles that he got from Hardy a little earlier. "This is from a man named Riven Hardy. I've extracted the glycerin from the liquefied soap bubbles he barfed."

As expected, the prisoners arrived and stopped upon seeing the regulars preparing to aim their gun at them.

"Ready!" the Sergeant yelled an order.

"What good that'll do?" Dearka glanced in confusion at Athrun.

The prisoner's gulped as the guns are cocked and loaded.

"Combining the Glycerin from soap with Nitrate, composed of nitrogen and oxygen that I can get from the air, I've transmuted the glycerin into a highly unstable compound 13 times more powerful than gunpowder."

"Take aim!" and the Troopers aimed their guns at the weaponless prisoners.

On the other side, Athrun threw the vial he had been concocting towards the door. "Its molecular formula is C3H5N3O9…

"F-"

The vial exploded violently upon impact with the door, blasting them off their hinges, knocking the steel door forward, smashing the Regular Troopers screaming to a mess from their rear. "…popularly known as Nitroglycerine." Athrun finished his explanation to a wide mouthed Dearka.

The initially horrified prisoners looked at all this destruction and jawdropped. And then, from the smoke Athrun waltzed in, still carrying the Head Warden and the coffin sword on his back.

The prisoners looked at the boy. Some of them recognize the raven haired boy. "Holy shit… that's Athrun Zala!" "Athrun? Athrun Zala?" "Seriously?" "I thought he'd be bigger!"

"…we're not here to rescue you people." Athrun quickly declared and everyone went into silence. "We're here for this." Athrun motioned at the giant coffin sword on his back. "However, you're free to tag along… but I cannot guarantee all your safety, and I will only help you until we get out of here."

"What, you're just gonna leave us out there?"

"ARE you a proud children of the Onis or aren't you?" Everyone gasped into silence. "Are you not the proud knights of Zaft? Or have you guys had been imprisoned and left to rot here for far too long that you've forgotten what it's like to fight and stand up like a man?" Athrun barked. "…we have our mission that we cannot compromise! You guys had yours as well before this, have you not?"

A muscular and elderly bearding prisoner stood forward. He seem to be the leader of this prisoners. "We understand, young Knight. Very well. We will not be in your way. Just help us out of this prison, and we can take care ourselves from there."

Athrun smiled. "Let's go. And don't forget Mr. Hardy from the hospital ward."

"Oh right! Let's go!" "Who's Mr. Hardy?"

And so, the prisoners, led by Athrun with the Head Warden as a shield literally marched his way out of the compound and straight towards the gate. When the Gate Guard looked at the prisoners marching freely like in no man's land, they were prepared to open fire… until they notice that Athrun was holding the Head Warden hostage. "OPEN THE DOOR! AND I WILL RELEASE THE HOSTAGE!"

"What now?" The guards were in a fix. The Sergeant looked at the situation. "…we need accuracy."

And then, the Troopers pretend to disperse. But Athrun knew this is a ruse. Dearka looked at Athrun who didn't budge a step. "Dearka, lead the prisoners out of here. I'll follow last."

Dearka nodded and motioned the prisoners to follow him. The Prisoner leader was a bit uncertain about leaving Athrun alone, but Dearka reassure him. "Trust him. He knew what he's doing. He always had a plan for everything." And slowly, but surely, the prisoner walked out of the prison gate. And finally, only Athrun was left. Athrun walked away from the gate. "I'll leave the head warden 500 meters from here." He told one of the guards. The guard merely spit. Athrun simply smiled and walk away with the head warden in tow.

Barely 200 meters ahead, the prisoners and Dearka had already waiting for them. Athrun smirked. "Right. Let's get this done and we're-"

Before Athrun can finish, something went through his head and blow up his tongue from the back. Athrun vomited blood… and a bullet. That's when he realized he just got shot in the head from the back, and a small rear part of his head was gone.

Dearka realized it's coming from the base. "SNIPERS!"

At the base, two Troopers, one carrying a telescope, the Spotter, confirmed the headshot. "Headshot confirmed. Reloading."

The Sniper, a specialized regular trooper carrying a specialized Dagger Musket rifle modified with a very long and heavily reinforced barrel and larger scope attached to it quickly reloaded his rifle without a word.

The Prisoners were terrified when a bloody headed Athrun began to collapse.

"Aiming at the second target. Ready…"

The Sniper aimed at Dearka's head.

"Fire."

The Sniper lit the fuse of his rifle, a spurt of lit gunpowder later, and the sniper's scope was briefly clouded by the smoke spewing out of musket barrel and the bullet flew out of his musket, heading straight to Dearka's head…

…until Athrun caught the bullet midair.

"WHAT the…!?" The spotter gaped in shock. "…we… we shot through his head didn't we? How did he…?"

Athrun spit a few more times as his head regenerated. When his tongue grew back, he groaned. "Damn. So that's what my brain taste like…"

"You… alright?" Dearka gulped. He had heard that some Zoan's regeneration capability border on immortality, but that's just ridiculous.

"I'm not immortal, in case you're wondering. Get hit in the head one time too many, and I'm not sure I'll survive."

"I HATE these naturals and their guns! I'm surprised you haven't invented anything to counter it!"

"I did!" Athrun chuckled. He's fully healed now. "It's just that… the Prototype, which has 37 syllables, broke my arm every time I fired it. Understand, Dearka? It BROKE my ARM!"

Dearka sweatdropped. Anything powerful enough to do THAT to Athrun is DEFINITELY not for public use. "Point taken."

"Good." Athrun turned around. "Nichol! You're there right?"

"I just got here. I should've come sooner, are you alright, Athrun-san?" To the shock of everyone, a light green haired boy appeared out of thin air. His hands and feet were equipped with black gauntlets and greaves. His garments were the black vest of the Onyx Hassansin, with some light armor with leafs and wood decoration. Wood Knight armor.

"I'm okay. Smokescreen! I'll leave the warden here. The rest of you, get out of here!"

"Roger!" Nichol quickly ran in circles around the escapees in supersonic speed. This in turn created a swirling cloud of dust. The spotters and the sniper couldn't see anything.

"DAMN! Get the Dragoons out there, don't let them get away!"

Dragoons. Cavalry mounted variant of the Troopers. The Dragoons quickly charged straight into the dust storm, but when it settles, all they found was the warden, struggling to open the mouthstrap, and he was none too pleased. What's with Dearka had a last laugh by plastering a paper on his head saying:

"Record officially broken. Buh-bye! :D V!"

A few hours later…

On the docks, there's a small ship waiting. Dearka quickly went in and was welcomed by Yzak. The two toasted. Athrun swiftly followed, carrying the coffin sword at his back. The ship nearly sank under the sword's sheer weight, scaring the hell out of everyone.

"So… that's the fourth weapon?" Rusty excitedly looked at the giant sword on Athrun's back.

"No. It's just a shell. It's the thing inside it that is the superweapon." Athrun explained briefly. "Four down. One more to go, then we're home free."

"What, I thought this was the last?" Yzak twitched.

"No… when I get sidetracked into the ward, I overheard the doctors talking that there was in fact FIVE weapons. There were two weapons kept there… but… they had one moved away. We're going after it now."

"Where are they taking it?" Everyone looked at Athrun, who seem a bit reluctant to speak of the answer.

"…Orb. To a city named Amaterasu… In Japan."

The color on everyone's faces paled at the answer. Japan. They heard it right, JAPAN! The CAPITAL of a super power nation whose super soldiers were more than willing to hack down any troublemakers on sight? They suddenly missed having Naturals shooting at them. "Okay, I knew it. Those Naturals are insane." Dearka slapped his head.

Chapter 34:

Athrun's Side Part 1:

The Man

Author Note:

The prologue was events that transpire before the Amaterasu. And since you guys already know how that mission went, I'll just skip that part and went straight ahead. This chapter tells the story of what happened to Athrun right after that trial in between chapter 6 to 10 (before Athrun began briefing Raww about his grand plan to defeat Archangel).

Nichol, Dearka and Yzak can only watch helplessly as the Knights put Athrun on shackles and escort him to a battle barge.

"This… This is not right!" Nichol protested to Raww. "Athrun only tried to help us!"

"I'm sorry, Nichol. But it's out of my hands. He rescued that 'civilian' that's probably tolerable… but he's also being insubordinate. The military law was clear, and he'll be court-martialed." The masked Hakutenkun bent down his head in sorrow.

After the trial was over (Chapter 6), Athrun was assigned to be put on a triple max security prison, a prison reserved for Advanced with enhanced strength, such it was the case, given Athrun's Zoan heritage. There are no such prisons in Zaft continents – bar Terminal. But Terminal is too much cruel of a punishment for someone of Athrun's status, and there's one more prison, in Australia, Tasmanian Island.

However, in the middle of the trip…

The whistling sound was the only precursor to a sudden bombardment from an Alliance Battlecruiser. About 2 to 3 of them, cornering that one battle barge. Their Gottfried cannons roared and mercilessly rained the battle barge with cannon shell.

One shot actually smashed right through Athrun's jail. Looking at the size of the shell, he knew right away who are the attackers. Athrun peeked from the giant hole and saw the situation. In an instant he knew right away: they don't stand a chance with these odds. "Oh… shit…" Athrun quickly kicked the prison bars and smashed it open. He rushed through the pouring water and the fire that began to spread across the ship. The wardens and the other knights were too busy salvaging what they can to even care of an escaped prisoner. Another whistling sound and the ship was once again jerked and rocked violently when the projectiles hit home and burn and destroy whatever they hit. Shrapnels of wood and dust clouded Athrun's vision as he rushed across the chaos and destruction, heading, almost desperately towards the armory. When he get there, the door practically smashed open when the Barge received another shot. Athrun rushed in just as another barrage finally strikes in and this time, it ignited the barge's magazine.

Moments later, the barge finally exploded in the midst of the heavy downpour and the storm that occurred. The light of its massive conflagration pierce through even the stormy weather. The battle barge was trashed, all hands lost…

…except one.

0000000000000

Athrun opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings. It's an empty orange space… he saw a lot of… gears grinding in the sky… the whole orange sky was composed of interconnected bronze gears, spinning each other. And the ground… it's littered with… steel pipes? More like horizontal crisscrossing smoke stacks. "What is this place?"

"Welcome."

Athrun looked up and gasped. There's someone… or something… there.

It's a man or at least, he seems to be. The man has a large overbearing physique. His entire body was completely covered in armor. It's a very regal medieval and layered black and red armor, decorated royally, one would say excessively, with engravings of regal elder faces in several joints and elbows, reliefs depicting events of spectacular grandeur on each piece that formed the armor, and they are framed with many glowing runic figures. All this made the armor truly of kingly design, and it was draped in a equally regal violet fur cape. The man's face was completely enclosed in a full face mask. Awkwardly, the facemask was flat and distinctively blank, as it completely encompassed his face, and there are no visible slit or opening for eyes. With five long horns protruding upward from the facemask, it formed a crown. One horn at the center was the largest of all, and it's encrusted with emerald green jewel. The armored 'king' sat on a gigantic oversized throne high above Athrun. The Throne was made of a mountain of mishmashing weapons. Swords, spears, hammers, axes, arrows, etc.

Before Athrun can understand further, the 'King' dropped his hand, and all the sudden, Athrun felt something heavy just smashed down on him and forced him to fell on his knees.

"You will prostrate yourself before me, commoner. You are honored to be in the presence of a being far more superior then you." The 'king' spoke in a booming voice, and a very haughty as well as authoritative tone.

"Who… are… you?" Athrun angrily tried to resist this mysterious unseen power forcing him down. With his brute strength as a Zoan, the fact that he could barely get back up on his feet was quite a feat.

The 'king' seem offended by the question and slammed his heel once in anger, causing an echo across the space. "Can you not comprehend my identity even when you are basked in my majestic presence!?"

"…huh?" Athrun blinked in confusion.

"Then LEAVE MY PRESENCE ye who are most unworthy of mongrel! See to it your manner improve IF I saw fit to lower myself and bask your inferior being in my majesty again!"

The 'King' shoved his hand forward, and that unseen force that pull Athrun down suddenly smashed his face like a giant invisible jackhammer and sent him flying backwards.

0000000000000

When Athrun opened his eyes, he found himself very… very weak… and starving as well. But he must've been injured VERY badly that, his body must've exhausted itself to heal him. Worse, he's chained to the wall. If he weren't this hungry and weak, he can easily tear these chains down. He looked at his surroundings… he's in a… dungeon… or some sort. It stinks of blood… and… corpses.

And it's dark. Athrun quickly adjusted to the dim lighting, that's when he realized he's not alone.

"You're awake?"

Athrun opened his eyes and saw a girl. Korean descent, with light brown hair tied to a ponytail. Her face was dirty and blemished with dirty blots, here and there. "…w…who…?"

"SSsssh! Here, eat this." The girl gave him a bread… a soggy moldy old bread. Athrun bite down. It taste awful, but beggars can't be choosers. He swallowed them all in one gulp, but his stomach still making weird sounds. Zoans need to eat a LOT to keep their metabolism in check.

"M… Mo…re?"

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I… I don't have anymore! I'm sorry!" The girl apologized profusely… almost frantically.

Athrun tucked his head down in understanding. "W…Wh…"

"Ah, my name is Yoon Sefan. What's yours?"

"A…At…" Athrun was so weak that he could barely speak.

Before they can continue the conversation, a door was suddenly opened and a bunch people came barging in. Athrun gasped for a moment. Those are…

"Heya there. We meet again, eh? Alchemist boy?"

"…you?"

The Head Warden in Artemis! 'Holy… did he chase me all the way out here… wait… where IS here?'

"I told you. In my 20 years of career, I've never let anyone escape from me." The Head Warden gloated in front of Athrun. "…well… I was hoping I can get my hands on that tanned bastard friend of yours… but… you turn out to be an even better catch… Athrun Zala."

Yoon Sefan gasped in shock as she turned to the boy.

"W… Wha…"

"Oh… right. You're a Zoan. We all know the best way to torture a zoan, it is by starving them halfway to death." The Head Warden spoke in tones full of experience. "But sometimes, things get a little counterproductive. And we ended up putting them into so much starvation that they could barely talk, and they finally died anyway. But we don't want to kill you mr. Zala. Not yet anyway."

"W…Wh… Whrhk…"

The Head Warden was somewhat confused at the apparent lack of intelligible response. But then he nodded in understanding. "Hrmmmh… let's give him something more to eat, eh?"

The two guards, the two burly Torturers who once beat Athrun's face to obliteration marched forward with leering smile and shove a pair of knuckle sandwich to Athrun's face. But apparently… they misunderstood something, because soon after, the Head Warden was shouting insults and angry barks at them. "NO! You BLITHERING IDIOTS! I meant literal FOOD! Where's that basket?"

"Uhh…" the two torturers looked dumbly at each other and then realized: "We seem to have misplaced it."

"…" The Head warden's face was as red as it can get. "No ration for you this week, all of it is for Mr. Zala here! GOT IT?"

"Oh come on boss!"

"NOW GET OUT!" The Head warden roared. The two torturers scurry out of the dungeon with sunken face. The Head Warden growled and then looked at Athrun's bloodied face. He approached the hanged boy and then pulled something out of his bag strapped to his belt. It's a hard flea bitten loaf of bread. He shove it to Athrun's bloodied lips, and the boy ate it hungrily. In a blink of an eye, the bread was gone.

Athrun gulped down the bread and felt a part of his strength returning. Far from adequate really, knowing the way his body works. "…why… let me… live?"

The Head Warden white brows furrowed. "You are far more famous among the Naturals than you would care to admit, Mr. Zala. How many battles have been won by Zaft armies in your name? In the last 2 years, many Zaft knights I've interrogated recited your name like a prayer. Not to mention, many of your inventions are strewn across the battlefield. Take this one, for instance." The Head Warden dropped something in front of Athrun's eye level.

It's a crossbow. But it has been greatly modified. Athrun remembered this design. It's one of his answers to the Alliance guns, a rapid firing gas propelled crossbow that fire large caliber arrows rapidly. There's a drum shaped magazine just beneath the crossbow part that automatically reload the crossbow as soon as it launched an arrow at split second. Its range and accuracy is greatly reliant on the skills of the archer (which, given the fact the archers are advanced, is REALLY something), but, it was clearly fell short beneath the Dagger rifle's destructive firepower. Not to mention it's a bit difficult to produce. Compound that with the fact that it can't penetrate Trooper's shield deep enough to do serious damage beyond a prick, it's not available in great numbers until further improvements, by decree of the inventor himself.

"It's… my… Crossbow? You… have… my Crossbow?"

"It's a very interesting design." The Head Warden dropped the Rapid Crossbow and showed something. The Dagger rifle… but they've been modified. The previous version have 5 fixed barrels, each firing a shot and the triggering mechanism which still required the shooter to lignite the gunpowder in the breech manually. But this one has none of that. There's only one thick and reinforced barrel, but there's a boxlike attachment beneath the barrel at the bottom forward portion of the gun barrel. The box magazine hold 8 canisters… no, eight breeches, each contains a bullet. The Head Warden demonstrated this by firing rapidly by just pulling the trigger multiple times. The new gun fired about a 8 times before stopping. Each shot is coupled with a noticeable muzzle climb, even when the shooter used both hands to hold it. The empty breeches snapped out after each fire. "Windam Assault rifle. We'll roll it out this month. Still had to push the trigger to fire only one bullet at a time… and the kickback's a bitch, not to mention the muzzle climb… but now we can reliably fire 8 shots before we had to change the entire magazine."

Athrun was shocked at this. As if the current Dagger rifle weren't bad enough and now they've upgraded it to something far worse? "You guys… developed something like this… so quickly…?" And the fact that HIS invention helped them in that regard horrified him more than anything else.

The Head Warden smiled. "Well… it's not like we just got our hands on your crossbow yesterday…."

And now, as Athrun's eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, now that he noticed it, there's a LOT of his inventions strewn across the place. Many had been disassembled, but he still recognized many of his creations. Many of which regards to his attempt to produce firearms… or something to counter them. A half opened string shooter: a modified bola shooter that fired a bola that cuts people instead of wrapping around them by spinning whirring strings connected to the bolas, cutting people apart to small pieces. Bomb dropper: disposable small propeller that spin high into the air, carrying a fused bomb with various warheads: explosive, blotting ink, or shrapnel bomb. When the fuse ran out, the bomb drops, and the mechanism will make them explode on impact. Dart spreader: tube shaped, self propelled rocket. Exclusively Anti infantry, it sprang up upon impact, whirring around shooting needles allover the place. All of it his inventions – but several saw limited deployment on the battlefield… VERY limited, seeing they were never meant to be mass produced. And… the worst of his invention…

"And this one, I don't get." The Head Warden lifted what looked like a heavily mechanized blunderbuss rifle. A relic of the old era a few decades back, heavily modified by Athrun to fire-BURT! a cloud of brown smoke burst out of the conical barrel, sending God awful smell of fart allover the place. "I just don't understand… under what circumstances, did we use this for?"

Athrun groaned. Doesn't matter if many of his military invention had some shortcomings or seem fiendishly out of place. The most important question IS: "WHERE… did you… get… them?"

The Head Warden looked at Athrun's tortured expression and dropped the Fart Gun (AN: Copyrights of UNIVERSAL Studios from the Despicable Me). "They're scattered allover the battlefield. Here and there. Either dropped by their users when they ran… or we claimed them from their dead hands. Did you know that we actually had a special forces responsible for gathering these things?"

Athrun gasped in horror. His body maybe very tired and weak, but his mind racing. His tired but brilliant mind that has given birth to all these weapons raced way ahead of his body. "What… do you… want… from me?"

The Head Warden puffed a flock of smoke from his scar ridden lips. "That can wait."

"No, I don't think so." Athrun growled. "As you said… you're not here to gloat… you want my brain power… so WHAT do YOU WANT?"

The elderly man looked at the cowering Korean girl. "Alright. You carry him. Guards, unlock his chains."

In short order, Yoon carried the half dead Athrun out of the dungeon, escorted by several Troopers carrying bayoneted rifles. They closed their faces under a black bag as they drag him around. The idea so that they won't know where they going. Well… that's the general idea…

'12, 13, 14… turn left.' The group turned left. '1, 2, 3, 4, 5…' the group make a right turn on the 57th step, and then they go up the stairs, passed through 3 checkpoints, turn 6-7 more times before Athrun felt a fresh whiff of sea air and the sound of gulls cawing. That's when they decided to remove the black bag off his and Yoon's head.

Athrun's eyes hurt slightly when he was showered by the bright light of the sun after being kept in the darkness. But his eyes quickly adjusted and that's when he realized his situation of where he is. It's a well fortified and guarded alliance Base in a small island. Many Alliance Regular Troopers waltzing about here and there or just stand on guard. Guardtowers with protruding Gottfrieds can be seen placed on strategic spots. He can see shores. It's a rather tiny rocky island. He couldn't find any harbors from the angle he's seeing. He saw several small brick structures with huge smokestacks protruding out of the ground, blowing up smoke high above.

But that's not all. He saw a LOT of death dealing weapons around the place: towering magazines of bullets pile up, dozens of Windam Assault rifles piled up in a box, Sniper rifles hanged up… the smell of gunpowder and steel is thick in the air. And not just infantry weaponry: shells as tall as a full grown man's waist lined up, ammunition of the lined up Gottfried cannons, steel tipped rockets with barbed hooks for the Hellfire mortar and two new artilleries he had never seen before: one, a twelve barrel organ gun, with a rotating system, it was designed to fire four barrels at a time, rotate to a new batch of four barrels and so forth. The other one… a large cannon that reeks of oil… Athrun had a suspicion, given by the dragon decoration on its barrel, it can fire something scorching. Is this place… a weapons lab and factory?

"What do you think?"

"…what… do… I… think…?" Athrun gulped. "…did I… Did my… inventions… my designs… created all this?"

"…some of it." The Head Warden answered half truthfully. "We used many of your designs to improve our own… but… it's not like you can underestimate Natural engineers."

The Head Warden motioned Yoon to follow him. The three went inside one of the underground factory, through a series of stairs. Sweat flooding Yoon's temple as the girl had to carry Athrun through it all. "Sorry…" Athrun knew his weight better than anyone.

"I'm okay. I'm used to heavy lifting back in Morgenroete."

'Morgenroete!?' Athrun's mind was silently alarmed when he heard the name in the passing casual remark. Athrun put that matter aside for the moment and he began to study his surroundings. Pipes… temperature raising… the smell of steam and steel… "…so…"

The Head Warden glanced slightly at the downed Athrun.

"This is what you guys need my help for…"

"Oh? You knew what we're going to ask of you without seeing it?"

"I know… because… I've tried… something… similar… back… in the past…" They arrived at a steel door. Steam cascading out of the chinks of the steel door. The Head Warden nodded at the guards and they opened the steel door, letting out a massive amount of steams enveloping the group. When the flock of steam disperse, the group was welcomed by the sight of a giant mechanical contraptions as tall as the Alliance engineers that are tinkering with it, connected to plentiful of steel cables, spewing steams here and there. Gears and widgets twitched and spin eerily as the machine trembled and shakes menacingly. "…a steam engine."

At the moment, if there's any race that outpaces the Arms race for firearms, that would be the energy race, specifically, steam power. That being said, there had been many cases of successful steam engines throughout this war. Athrun created one that was used to power Aquarius. A giant of a ship that became the flagship of Goud Veia. The Alliance had several very reliable steam engines used on their gigantic weaponry of mass destruction. The Lohengrin cannon system and their massive land battleship, the Slayer Tanks. Relics of the past which they took great lengths to preserve. But these things are rare, very difficult to repair, and nearly impossible to replace if destroyed. Such was the difficulty that they just can't afford to break one down to be studied. They don't have the technical knowhow on how to put it back together once they've disassembled them. What's with a great demand with War on the horizon, they need all the tanks they can spare on the field. But the fact is this: current steam engines are HUGE and heavy. They can't be mounted on anything smaller than a battlecruiser. The existing main principles are the bigger the boiler, the more power it produces. But large boilers require enormous amount of cylinders, and those cylinders had already consume large amount of powers on their own. They are inefficient, and had quite a temper, prone to exploding when something's a little off. Every engineer in the world, Athrun included, had tried to make it smaller. They had tried and failed. Athrun managed to create one without blowing himself up, but the power it produce was so pathetic that it could barely push a rowboat at snail's pace… assuming there's a rowboat out there that can house a 150 kg, horse sized steam engine without sinking straight down when the deadweight were placed on deck.

"…and you want me to help you?" Athrun growled, panting as his rising temper made his condition worsened. But anger and rage overcome all sense of pain. "Let me get this right: You… cannibalize… God knows how many of my inventions… to improve your own, using it to butcher my own people… and now you actually… you ACTUALLY HAD THE AUDACITY to BLATANTLY asking me to DIRECTLY HELP YOU!?" Athrun choked and suddenly collapsed on his knees.

Yoon quickly helped Athrun up.

The Elderly Head Warden merely shook his head. "This is a very remote island, Athrun Zala. I'm sure your friends are looking for you, but this island didn't even show on the map. They'll never find you here in time. And let me remind you again that you are very weak. You need food to survive. And you can tell me that you can handle starvation, I have 20 years torturing and interrogating zoan under my belt, and believe me when I tell you, most of them finally cracked and do anything for scraps… even cannibalism of fellow inmates." The Head Warden glared at Athrun's deviant eyes. Yoon swallowed a gulp in fright. "And, unless I miss my guess… your need for food is even direr than others."

Athrun growled. The Head Warden sighed. "Take him back to his cell. Think it over, Athrun Zala. While your mind still sane enough to make coherent decisions."

The boy was once again put under the black bag and dragged back to his cell, together with the Head Warden and Yoon. The Guards wanted to chain the boy, but the Warden sent them away. "Leave it. He's too weak to even lift a finger." That's when he also realized there's a new person on board. A girl with a short blond hair. The thing is… she was strapped with dozens of layers of chains even thicker than the ones used to restrain Athrun, and she's still squirming. Even her face was placed on a steel strap, with a large heavy padlock. "Who's she?" The Head Warden looked at the guards, and that's when he realized: one of the guards had one blackened eye, several of his teeth lost, both cheek swollen. The other one had blood trickling nonstop from his nose, his lips torn, his forehead slightly sank in with the shape of a fist… and there's a part of his head that lost a scalp… it looked as if they were… bitten off? "…What happened?"

"Found her washed up ashore. Apparently she came to get her. She put up quite a fight when we tried to arrest her. And by God can she fight." The guards pointed at Yoon. "Anyway, you think this is bad? You should see the other guys in the infirmary."

"Hm." The Head Warden. "Oh well. She might be another Zoan. Keep her restrained for a few days without food. After that she should've mellowed a bit." The Head Warden turned to Athrun. "And you… you better think it over."

And then the Warden and his Guards left. Yoon put Athrun gently down and then she quickly rushed towards the bound squirming girl.

"MMHM! MMHRHMM!" The girl seems became excited when she looked at Yoon and squirmed even harder to break free. Not that it did her any good.

"Ka-chan!" Yoon seem overjoyed when she looked at the blonde girl.

'Ka-chan' merely whimpered as her eyes turned to a curve. She's smiling too beneath all that chains wrapping around her. Athrun smiled, happy for Yoon seeing her friend. Yoon looked at the state her friend was in and tried to pry the chains open. "Ng… Nggggrghh! NgraaaaaNgh! Kyaa!" She tried but in the end it amount to nothing. The chains were very thick and it won't budge no matter what. Tears began to trickle from Yoon's eyes. "Mou! What's the idea here!"

Athrun felt a slight pity. "Hey, help me up."

"?" Yoon and the girl looked at Athrun.

"Let me help you." Athrun added.

Yoon looked at the girl and the girl nodded, seemingly motioning the other girl to do as he says for now. Yoon then lifted Athrun up. "Put me next to her." Yoon did so, and, with much difficulty with his weak limbs, Athrun plucked a wire from one of his old invention and began tinkering on the padlock on the girl's face with it. "I learned this from an old friend of mine." A few moments later, a clicking sound can be heard and the padlock was unlocked. The straps were removed, revealing, to Athrun's shock, an angry girl's face. Obviously a girl, but with subtle features of boyish characteristics, apparently inborn features. Kinda cute, in his opinion. For some reason, Athrun couldn't help being reminded of a certain brown haired old friend, who was the exact opposite.

"Thank you." Ka-chan smiled in gratitude.

"Your welcome." Athrun nodded with a slight blush, noting just how cute her smile is. "I'm afraid I can't do anything with the chains wrapping your body though. They were nailed, not locked. When they wrapped these things around you, they sure as hell don't want them to come off easily."

"If only I got some breakfast in me before I get here…!" Ka-chan squirmed angrily, trying as hard as she could to tear the chains off. Much to Athrun's slight awe, he can actually see the chains were strained. Wow. This girl must be a HELL lot stronger than she looks.

"Another Zoan eh?" Athrun moaned. "Get ready to be starved. That's the only way they keep us Zoans in check."

"Zoan? What are you talking about?" Ka-chan frowned in confusion. "I don't have that sort of bloodline limit or zoan or paramusa or Lo… Logus… lomia… what did you Zafties called it?"

'Zafties?' Athrun sweatdropped. "You're not Zoan?"

"Zoan, Zoin, Zoil… you mean those guys who turned into animals and ate a crapton of food? Nah. It's just that I'm in slump if I haven't eaten anything. What? You're like that too?"

"…kinda." Athrun shrugged. "This place is some kind of Alliance secret weapon factory and development. I take it we're somewhere between the Philippine and Japan. Judging by the geography and topography of this place, I'd say, by longitude and latitude we're somewhere around-"

"YOON! Where have you been? Erica was worried sick!" Ka-chan barked at Yoon.

"…erh… hello?"

"Kya! Sorry Ka-chan! A dog was chasing a cat, a cat was chasing the rat, and the rat was chasing me! I was scared!" Yoon was instantly brought to the verge of tears.

"Are you listening?"

"Aaahh… How the hell did you end up here anyway?" Ka-chan shook her head in disbelief. "I mean, last I recall you were in the Morgenroete First Academy in Izumo! How did you end up so far away out here?"

"You're ignoring me aren't you?"

"Hu… I don't know! All I know is, suddenly I'm on a ship bound to Timbustan or timbukltus or… or… something. There's a loud BAAAM in the sky, and then, and then, there's a lot of BOOm and CRASH and, and… and then when I came to, I ended up here."

"You're ignoring me."

"MoOOU! What is it with you! Why are you always so absent minded!?" Ka-chan scolded Yoon in frustration but then stopped short when she saw the Korean girl was on the verge of crying again.

"…" For the first time in the longest period, Athrun felt really stupid.

"Sob… Sob… Ka-chan… you're angry at me… Sob… I'm sorry… sob… I'm sow sowwy…. BWAAAAAAAAAAHHUAHUAHUAAAAA!" and she cried incessantly.

"A… Ahh…" Ka-chan nervously gulped. She looked at Athrun pleadingly. "Oi, help me here!"

"Help you?" Athrun was more than willing to help, but he too was at lost. "What am I supposed to…"

All that never-ending crying finally drew the guards' attention and they barged in to see the situation. What's with Yoon crying like a baby, and more importantly, the unchained Athrun was sitting right next to the still bound but no longer gagged Ka-chan. "Oi! What are you guys doing?"

Everyone, save for the still crying Yoon remained in silence. One of the guards, still fresh and knew nothing about Ka-chan, approached the crying Yoon. "Oi! SHUT UP!" the Guards attempted to kick the girl, Athrun stopped him.

"Leave the girl alone!" Athrun growled. The Guard growled back and kicked Athrun away. He was too weak to even mount a proper resistance. Ka-chan squirmed and growled. The Guard turned back to the still crying Yoon and slapped her. She simply cried harder.

Seeing someone lay a hand on her friend, Ka-chan was enraged beyond belief. She struggled even more, trying to break the chains that bound her. "YOU MOTHER FUCKING CLUSTERSHITFUCK! THAT'S IT! You just went to the TOP of MY DIPSHITLIST you SHITCOCKFUCKER!"

The Guard gawked for a moment listening to that short tirade of bizarre profanity coming from a girl. "Holy… you suck your mom's tits with that mouth?" The Guard still had the audacity to kick the still sobbing Yoon.

Ka-chan gritted her teeth so hard as veins popping out around her face. It was as if her angry bloodshot yellow eyes were about to pop out of their socket, so angry she was. "One more hit, and I swear I'll…"

The Guard kicked Yoon again, and still she won't shut up. "You'll what? Stupid he-male."

At that, Yoon stopped crying.

Ka-chan stopped squirming.

Athrun's eyes sprang open when he sensed a very thick murderous aura in the air.

"W… What did you just call me?"

The Guard didn't seem to understand what's about to transpire, and he kept gloating. "I said He-male. With those flat tits you would've passed as a transvestite, boy."

Ka-chan's eyes twitched dangerously.

"Or wait… could it be that you're actually a guy with some sick taste? Yeah… you're definitely a guy!" the Guard continues to shoot his mouth of, not understanding he's about to unleash the very forces of Hell.

"Oi."

"Hm?"

"Call me Guy one more time. And I'll make you EAT those words."

The Guard paused for a moment. Did she just did what he thought she just did? Smirking, the guard bent down to say the word to Ka-chan's face: "G-"

Mouth clench.

0000000000000

Right that instant, a galaxy conquering super powered alien invaders crusading across the stars, hailing from multiple extraterrestrial superpower star systems originating from a galaxy far-far away from Earth went into full scale retreat when their leaders unanimously agreed to cancel their plan to invade Earth for an indeterminate amount of time… nah, for eternity. Their communication's officer caught a sound coming from Earth which was best described as a single, most terrifying roar of anguish and pure pain the universe has ever heard. A nightmarishly horrifying gut crunching scream, coming straight from their darkest most evil and twisted imagination that promise eternal suffering and endless infinite agony that reverberated across all known and unknown creations. Several star systems went into self-imposed extinction when its inhabitants performed a total mass suicide out of fright of that sound.

For millennia to come, not a single alien species dare to put a single foot (or whatever their equivalent) on earth due to that catastrophic horrifying sound, and all Extraterrestrial beings decided to steer clear far away from Earth.

0000000000000

The vomiting guards dragged their scarred-for-life (or more like too-scarred-to-live) colleague, having been force-fed his own 'manliness'… in LITERAL SENSE, out of the room, away from that monster in girl form. Yes, a girl. DEFINITELY a girl. No guy would ever do that with one's mouth! WITH ONE'S MOUTH! Their faces were as pale as death. The situation inside the cell was no better. Yoon closed her eyes tight. Athrun collapsed with foaming mouth, horrified at what he just seen. All that was done with only her mouth. Now he kinda regret removing that mouthgag.

"YOU SHOULD FEEL LUCKY I DIDN'T BITE THAT THING OFF, YOU SHITFUCKERS!" Ka-chan roared in blatant bloodthirst. (AN: yes. She didn't bite them off… just another simple and rather extreme Yoga Crash Course accident)

The doors were quickly slammed shut, new fresh guards, 20 of them, with another baker on the way, were dully warned pertaining to a certain G-word, and they posted themselves at least a mile away from the gate, guarding it with the biggest guns they can muster.

As soon as the last guard left, Ka-chan turned, concern evident, to Yoon. "Yoon! Yoon! You're okay?"

"I… I… I'm okay." The poor girl smiled, but she was obviously scared shitless.

'As it stands' Athrun wisely surmised in silence: 'You scare her a lot more than the guards…'

"Hm? What?" Ka-chan innocently looked at Athrun who looked at her with a funny look.

"Nothing. Nothing." Athrun chuckled nervously. But then, he turned to a more serious topic. "Still… M'Lady… I had to ask… you're here for Yoon?"

"What? What's with that M'lady thing?" Ka-chan smiled kindly like a goddess. "Just call me Ka-chan!" A far cry different with her demonic bloodthirsty self a little earlier. "And yes, I came here for my friend here."

"I'm just trying to be polite. You will forgive me that I may address you as such from time to time, m'lady." Athrun secretly sweatdropped. 'Also, after THAT, I find it difficult to not treat her as a guy if I don't call her that. Not that I'll ever say it to her face.' "Then I presume you're from Orb?"

"Yes. You 'presume' correctly. Can you please knock it off with the sudden formal tone? It's… annoying!" The Girl, Athrun noted, showed obvious distress on the word Orb.

"Okay." Athrun nodded. "The Head Warden mentioned Miss Yoon here came from Morgenroete. And now that I recall, you said the same thing."

"That I did."

Athrun thought as much. Each faction, Zaft and Alliance would never admit it, but if there's one country that truly outpaced the two in terms of technology – particularly when it comes to the aforementioned energy race, it's Orb. Reason: intensified resource dedication. Zaft and Alliance had tried too hard to focus all their resources on two major resource exhaustive endeavors: arms and energy race, at the same time. On the other hand, Orb, or rather… the Samurai, they've done their homework and used an enduring design that dated back to the Sengoku period. They got plenty of experience for firearms. That, and firearms is, putting aside their disdain for it, the least of their worries. They put big guns on their ship. Fine. Talk about practicality. But seriously: what need have they of giant guns when a single one of their super soldier can cause more destruction than a salvo of cannonfire? They put resources just enough to continually update their firearms so that it won't lose to the Alliance, and that's it.

With the concern of firearms virtually behind them, Orb put a greater amount of concern to the energy development. And in this, they truly excel. Every Orb Samurai Battleship is highly advanced, and, unlike the rest of the nation who still used wooden constructions and cloth sails, their battleship used Metal as the main construction material, thus making their battleship incredibly sturdy and virtually indestructible. But metallic construction meant the ship will be heavy, and with such weight, conventional propulsions such as oars and sails won't do. That's where steam engines came into play. Steam engines are the only kind of engine powerful enough to move the metallic hulls of ironclads. And so far, only Orb, thanks to its devout resource focus on this matter, are the leading force in Steam Engine construction. Every country would KILL to get their hands on Orb's steam engine knowledge.

A fact that the Samurais and Shinobis of Orb knows too well. Knowledge is power. And the knowledge pertaining to their steam engine is the one knowledge that Orb guarded with the ferocity of a bloodhound – probably on equal footing with their super secret Samurai Bushido techniques. Each of their two Morgenroete Academies in Japan and Europe were fiercely guarded by an entire chapter of Samurais – or as of late, there are two chapters. The Golden Muramasa guarded the one in Japan, the Main Morgenroete Academy in Onogoro, Orb's capital – with some unwelcome help by the Red Murasame chapter which had taken up residence there, and the Violet Masamune and Blue Murakumo shared their guarding responsibility over the second one, in Berlin, along with the backings of the Archangelsk War Factory in the cold Russia. The Captains of every ship in the Green Kusanagi chapter had been trained, in the event of defeat, to destroy all traces of their steam engines first, overloading it to a self destruction in some kind of Seppuku ritual as they went down with their ship – the Jibaku maneuver as they call it. Engineers who were captured or kidnapped by the enemy must either be: rescued, killed, or suicide. It's a rather ruthless method, but, as Athrun would have to admit: it worked like wonders and it's necessary. "So… am I right to assume that there will be reinforcement soon?"

"Reinforcements?" Ka-chan blinked in confusion.

"As it is, even a single kidnapped junior Engineer of Orb presented a very significant security loss, no? Shouldn't your government do something about ms. Yoon here?" Athrun thought quickly. "Or… could it be that you've been sent here to shut her up?"

"What on earth are you talking about?" The girl chuckled as if Athrun had just said something very stupid. "I don't know what you're thinking, but when I heard she went missing I'm really here just to get Yoon back. I don't know anything about any reinforcements."

"…" Athrun blinked several times. "…then how did you get here? You got intel help from your shinobis?"

"I throw dart on the globe."

"…if you're trying to make fun of me to keep your super intricate shinobi network in secret I'm more than understand but-"

"No. Seriously. I couldn't exactly blare at them… I… uh…" Ka-chan looked nervous. "…well… let's just say I'm doing this on my own. It's… personal. I can't ask for the Samurai's help. Nor the shinobis for that matter."

"…so… you just… by sheer dumb luck you… you managed to find this place… and then without any preparation whatsoever… no plan, no backup… you just charge in here… all by yourself…" Athrun looked at Ka-chan's state. "…and judging by what I've saw… you came here… completely… unarmed… and then see how it went?"

"Hey, my fists are all I need." Ka-chan grinned as wide as she can be. "Plus it's not like I don't have a plan."

"Oh. And the plan is?"

"Well…" Ka-chan smiled nervously. "Honestly, I didn't think I made it this far."

"…you don't have a plan."

"Hey, I'm making this up as I go." And still she smiled.

Athrun was left completely stupefied. There's what they called sheer dumb luck… this is both dumb… and luck. Hard to believe there's actually a girl like this in this world. "S…Still… I'd like to think… that, you came here or not… Samurais and Shinobis would still be looking for her."

"I don't think so." Yoon shyly confess. "I'm a VERY junior engineer. My expertise is… metallurgy. I'm like… a dime a dozen. Not worth an entire invasionary force or something."

"Don't sell yourself short, Yoon. You're among the brightest of all junior engineers. Erica was worried about you, you know. But too much time has gone by." Ka-chan muttered darkly. "You've been gone for 3 weeks Yoon and thus you've been considered compromised. If anything, they'll try to kill her instead of saving her."

"Oh. Sorry." Athrun gulped and looked at Yoon. Strangely enough, the girl looked as calm as ever. No, she looked resigned. "You're not concerned?"

"We've always been told to be prepared for it." Yoon nodded solemnly. "If we are captured, our duty is to shut our mouths and either: 1. Let them torture us to death or 2. Kill ourselves, or 3. If it is discovered that we are compromised, the Samurai will kill us. Us and everyone we've talked to: friends, foes, family…"

"I have no idea the Samurais are so… severe." Athrun gulped in fright. Somehow, he starting to be able to understand how could the Samurai kept so many things secret for hundreds of years without anyone being able get a glimpse of it. The recipe is simple: they take no chance, no loose ends untied, and kill everyone and every person related, no matter how remotely related.

"I won't let them Yoon!" Ka-chan stated confidently. "I'll beat the shit out of anyone who dares to lay a finger on you."

"I think you should be more concerned of your own state before worrying others." What was he supposed to say? Sure, she's got insane jaw strength to be able to bend a human body (by the scrotum) like that. But seriously, the girl had problems of thinking with her chest instead of her head.

"I… well…" Ka-chan blushed as she began pouting. "If only I ate some breakfast… grumble, grumble… breakfast is the most important meal of the day… grumble-grumble… B… Besides! What about you? Aren't you supposed to be… super strong Zoan or something?"

"…I'm… I'm a very unique zoan." Athrun explained. "Zoan burn their metabolism at a very fast rate, in exchange for incredible amount of physical power. They can even improve their already super strength and senses by exercise. We also possess incredible regenerative properties. Due to my heritage however… I'm several times stronger than any normal zoan out there, and my regenerative power border on instant healing. As consequence… my body's metabolism is also several times higher than average zoan."

Ka-chan's head had already start spewing smoke and her yellow eyes went blank.

Athrun ignored and rattled on: "With my body burning that much calories per second, my physical strength is also increased to explosive levels. But as the result, I can't use that much power for extended periods of time, and I can't transform if I didn't eat enough. I need a lot of food just to keep my body working on day to day basis. Otherwise my own body began burning at its own cells at a very fast rate and I…"

"Anoo…" Yoon suddenly interjected. She timidly pointed at Ka-chan, who had short-circuited some time ago, with her soul smoking out of her gaping mouth.

Athrun stopped right there and sweat dropped.

Just then, the gates were opened again. Several guards came in and brought food. Upon smelling the scent of food, Ka-chan's soul returned to the land of the living. They put the food on the ground and immediately left.

"H-hey!" The guards turned around. It's the blond haired girl. "Aren't you gonna untie me? How am I supposed to eat with my arms tied?"

"You figure it out! Aren't you advanced supposed to be superhumans?" The Guard smugly replied before they left with chuckles and locked the door again.

Athrun looked at the food, it's quite a lot of them. For naturals, that's enough to eat full for one meal. But for Zoans, it was far from adequate. Athrun grunted at his inborn weakness. Zoan super strength and senses are a boon, but he can't help to think that their need to eat grotesque amount of food for daily sustenance is sometimes rather counterproductive.

"GA-KU!"

"A… Ah! Ka-chan!"

Athrun looked at the commotion. 'Oh my god.' That 'ka-chan' is really eating the food with only her mouth. Squirming and naturally, making a mess of her face. She stopped for a moment to finish munching the food in her mouth and then swallowed it in one gulp and then she start eating again in that unsightly manner. Athrun sighed.

"Alright stop that." She was about to make another lunge before Athrun stopped her by the noose.

Ka-chan and Yoon looked at Athrun's stern face. "You eat like that and you might choke." Athrun gently pulled her up and then start cleaning up the leftovers on Ka-chan's face. The girl blushed slightly. "Now, let's eat properly okay?"

He took the bread from the food basket tear it up and start feeding the girl, slowly. Ka-chan blushed furiously and start eating, small bit by small bit. Athrun smiled as he saw the girl ate her food at a considerably slower pace. Apparently this was the first time someone (a guy in fact) fed her. But for all the food available, Athrun didn't touch even a single crumb. This earned the girl's curiosity.

"I think you should eat more."

"No. I won't eat." Athrun sternly stated. "I won't give up to their demands."

"Demands?" Ka-chan blinked. "Speaking of which, what are you in for, buddy?"

Athrun frowned as he looked at all his creations, scattered about the room. "I'm… I'm an engineer. I'm a… weapons designer." Athrun choked at the word weapon.

"You? You're an engineer? A weapons designer!?"

"From Zaft, Ka-chan! He's from Zaft!" Yoon quickly added.

"I designed many things that can fall under the classification of human killing machines. In that regard I was quite… successful." Athrun gave another loaf of bread to Ka-chan, but the girl ignored it and now she looked at all of Athrun's inventions scattered on the ground.

"You must be very smart, to be able to create all this."

"…" Athrun frowned in sadness and in pride. "Not that smart. Many of these inventions had some flaws one way or the other. There had to be something missing, something malfunctioned… And then by some circumstances they create unforeseen havoc or unwanted destruction." Athrun shrugged and blushed in embarrassment at his own ineptitude. "Some inventor I am huh?"

"But… if you're so bad at it… why do it?"

"If you're gonna ask that… well…" Athrun tilted his head. "…I'm just… well… I guess it's because I was angry… at the time."

"Angry?"

"…the first weapon I made… the first invention I made for the express purpose of killing is… well… naturally it didn't work well… but I do remember I made them when I was angry." Athrun recounted the time he made his first weapon: the prototype of the repeater crossbow. "I… lost a woman I cared the most in the world. My… mother."

Ka-chan and Yoon blinked.

"She was a… priestess. From time to time, my country sent a pilgrimage to Junius. You do know what's happening there, right?"

"Why would she go there?"

"To perform what we call a purification pilgrimage. We've been trying to recover that continent, undo the damage that was done to it, so many years ago."

"Oh my… and your mother… died there?"

"Actually, she managed to return." Athrun smiled watching the listeners' eyes bulged and jaw dropped in shock. "The first priestess who managed to do that too… but… something happened." Athrun's smile faltered instantly. "She never told us anything… but I… I had a friend… something quite like a foster brother… and he has this… interesting penchant of catching up things that others don't… and… and… and he saw through her. He saw… that something was wrong with her… something greatly disturb my mom… and he told me about it… truth be told neither of us took it seriously. But… then… she went back there." Athrun tucked his head down. "…she went back there, and this time… she… didn't make it back."

And for a moment, Ka-chan and Yoon's eyes gleam in sympathy.

Athrun took a deep breath and remain silent for a while as he closed his eyes, mourning what he had lost. "For some time I wallow in anger and sorrow. And then my 'genius brain' connected the dots and I blame the naturals… In a manner… I was right too. It was the naturals who first summoned the Genmas into Junius… they were the ones who unleash that Hell on Earth."

"Don't you think that's a little farfetched assumption?" Ka-chan suddenly glared eerily at Athrun. "So you blame ALL naturals for the death of your mum?" She squirmed and crawl her way to try to move before Yoon as if she wanted to cover her. "So… what, you're going to kill every natural you see to get back for your mum?"

Athrun blinked and then shook his head with a chuckle and understanding. "…I was 8 at the time. I was angry, and I didn't know better… at the time. Now I know better. Not all naturals are evil or anything…" Athrun smiled kindly, allaying Ka-chan's fear. "…still… it didn't change the fact that it was because of that I start making weapons."

Ka-chan only looked at the raven haired boy as he coughed and coughed. Once he calmed down, Ka-chan only sighed. "So you invent stuff that kill in revenge. Kill this guy, then kill that guy because you kill that guy. Kill, kill, kill, kill. Is that all you men are capable of talking about?"

"…I'll admit that the first weapons I made were based on that principle." Athrun didn't try to deny Ka-chan's accusations. "I was filled with rage and bloodlust. I want to make the one who had taken away my mother to be hurt. I want them dead. I want them suffer. My mind, at the time, were filled with thoughts like that, yes." Athrun looked at one of his invention scattered around the floor. "But then… as time went by and my anger was chilled by discipline and control… I'm beginning to see the bigger picture. I don't think my mom would want his son to make mass murdering weapons. And so my inventions began to shift to something of defensive applications like… a giant fortress battleship for shoreline defense (Aquarius, Veia's flagship), Reactive Blast Shields of the Legionnaires, Zoan transformer armor, etc. But…"

"…but… they're still weapons." Ka-chan guessed correctly. "Or… it was for Defensive purposes, but they can be weaponized for offensive purposes."

Athrun chuckled. "It's a bad habit for mankind… A habit I did not try to stop. I even helped built some and improve on some of them like the revolving reload system of the Isolde triple barreled Artillery."

"Why didn't you stop?" Ka-chan snapped. "You could've stopped. Stop fighting, stop inventing such dangerous things. But no. You keep doing it. You keep making weapons. And for what? To kill the enemies of your people?"

"To protect my people." Athrun defended himself. "Back during the Holocaust, the Alliance… no, the Order of Blue Cosmos massacred my people like cattle with their firearms. Now, in this war, the Alliance were doing the same. My inventions were supposed to counter that."

"That doesn't change the fact that you built weapons. The things that kill people. That takes life. You reason that these weapons were there to protect your people from your enemies. Did it ever occur to you that your enemies would have the same idea? Have you ever tried to think from their point of view?"

"You're trying to tell me that these people also have families and loved ones they want to protect. That in their bid to do that, they invented more things to kill my kind? Fine. Let me get back to you: did it ever occur to them that the advanced they aimed these weapons against also had loved ones and families? Did it cross their minds when they put innocent civilians into shooting range during the holocaust? Or when they burned hundreds of priests to the torch, raped priestesses countless times? Or when they destroyed Junius, an agricultural continent with little to no military or strategic value - ack!" Overexcited, Athrun suddenly choked as his chest hurts and he felt his breath was cut short mid sentence. He gasped and panted as his chest and stomach ache. He hadn't fully recovered. He coughed several times and ended up panting and wheezing for breath. "I KNOW I have blood on my hands. But this war… (wheeze)… has been going on for, what, 72 years and counting. How many children are orphaned every day? Every second this war goes on? There are more people like me out there. Losing their mother, father, brother, sister, husband, wife… I was trying to prevent more people to become like me. This war has to end. As quickly as possible."

"And in your bid to do that, the brightest idea you can think of is creating weapons that will make more people like you?" Ka-chan retorted. "All I've been hearing from you is that you've been inventing things that kill because you're upset they killed someone you cared. But instead of stopping the vicious cycle you add to the cycle instead of ending it. Think about it: so you kill someone because that someone kill someone you cared. And then someone that someone cared killed you because you killed someone that someone cared. And then someone who cares for you kills that someone, and then again, and again, and again. How can that ever end?"

"Then what do you propose I should do?" Athrun blared back in annoyance. "If you say everything I've done all this time is a mistake, what do you suppose I should've done? Sit in some library like a good little nerd, do nothing while my people are getting killed?"

"I don't know." Ka-chan answered simply. "I don't know what I would do, if I were as smart as you. You're smart. That much we know. But I'm not. Even my dad said I'm an idiot. But I do know what I'm trying to do RIGHT NOW." Ka-chan growled. Both were unaware that their voice began to increase in volume and intensity. "I'm here to SAVE someone! To save lives, not to take more lives. And you? What have you done now? Your weapons… all the tools of destructions… I don't know how many people it had killed. But from I've heard, it will kill a LOT more people."

"And I'm trying to prevent that!"

"By KILLING yourself? What good will that do? You die and that's it? You've put a lot of people in harm's way with your weapons. And then, when suddenly you realized that the people you care about were placed in the crosshairs of your deadly inventions, you ran away. Because you can't face it." Ka-chan glared straight at Athrun's widened eyes and continue to rattle not giving him one chance to reply. "You can't accept the fact that you will be responsible for the death of your own people! So you ran, pretending it has nothing to do with-"

"I. AM. NOT. RUNNING. AWAY!" Athrun suddenly found his temper spent and roared in anger. The guards outside could probably hear his outburst. Not so surprisingly, the guards were already ganging up on the door, trying to listen to their heating up argument.

"DYING. IS. RUNNING AWAY!" Somehow, Ka-chan managed to stand upright as she roared at Athrun's eye-level. "Dying is easy. If you want to fight them back, and give them a HELL of a fight, then why don't you try to stay alive? Are you just going to go down in history as the greatest and the most terrifying mass murdering weapon maker in history, or are you going to do something about it!?"

Athrun try to think of something to reply, but suddenly he collapsed to his knees. He choked and panted as his stomach growled loud enough for even Ka-chan and Yoon to hear. He's hungry… and he's weak. Weaker than he's ever been.

The other two captives frowned in concern of his state.

Athrun grunted as he fought to suppress the feeling of hunger. "Look… we can go on arguing about this… forever. But… if you'll excuse me… I think I need to lay down a bit for now."

"Hey! I'm not finished with you!" The girl didn't seem to realize she just won an argument with a boy with an IQ of over 200.

"Yes… you are… Milady." Athrun gaped the words. "-for now." The raven haired boy's eyes looked wild, confused and delirious. "But… you will excuse me… I… I need to think this through… in a sleep."

"Oh." Ka-chan nodded, her anger vanished completely without a trace. "Well, people's temper got shortened when they lack sleep… I heard eggheads always had trouble sleeping. You know they say like their body rest, but their brain never sleep… something like that."

"Y… yeah… I-i-it happens." Athrun sit down, while resting his back against the wall, preparing to sleep. He closed his eyes, and barely a few moments after that, one can already hear him snoring.

"So… how did HE get here?" Ka-chan jerked her thumb to the sleeping Athrun as she asked to Yoon. "Explain it to me, slowly, please."

"Ummm… well…where to start?" Yoon scratched her head.

0000000000000

Meanwhile, in Athrun's sleep…

It was just like what Ka-chan said. His body slept, but his brain still awake, haunted by thoughts and words.

Chief among the words are laughters from a certain stuck up haughty 'king'.

"WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

A mocking loud laughter.

Athrun glared at the source high above him. The 'king'! "What are you laughing at?"

"I'm just enjoying the show. A mongrel as smart as you getting put in his place by your intellectual inferior!"

Athrun was not amused in the least. But, all things considered, he was right. Had that debate went on and on, he would've lost. Ka-chan was right. He was too naïve thinking that his weapons will always be aimed at the people he intended to be. It's the fact that they exist as weapons is already a fact that it was dangerous, doesn't matter what he wants those weapons do. But he will not have some stuck up high and mighty king tell him that. "Look, is this gonna be a routine? Cause I SERIOUSLY need the calm and quiet in my sleep."

The King harrumphed. "Hmph! You should consider yourself privileged, mongrel. Not every day I decided to lower myself to bask your lowly existence!"

"Still with that stuck up attitude eh? Just because you have a King in your name doesn't make you a king, K-asdfr-u." Athrun twitched. 'Wait, what was that?' He touched his lips in confusion. He was trying to speak a name so why gibberish came out?

"Ho, ho… I see. So you've improved your manners." The King nodded lazily several times. "I guess it's worth waiting. But it's not enough that I allow you to speak my exalted name with your mangy lips, mongrel!"

"Where are you? In that dungeon, I know you're close. But… where are you?"

"Hmph! For all your genius of creating your subjects, you're none too bright."

"My subjects?" Athrun twitched.

"Your inventions, your weapons. All those things you've created. Are you not the masters of your own creations?" The 'King' then pulled a sword out of his thrones of arsenals. "Such as this sword, and this throne, even my being. They are all my creations. They are my subjects. I'm their creator, and thus they are my servants. Because I created them, thus they had to obey my every whim. And thus how I am King."

"Obey your whim?" Athrun blinked, then he remembered the weapon's peculiar form. "I think I'm starting to understand what you are."

The King seemed to be pleased by this as he chuckled beneath his faceless crown. The King returned his sword back to his Arsenal Throne.

"Jaa, as one creator to another, can I ask you a question?"

"Hm, I shall allow it. Speak!"

"If… something you create… a weapon of yours are being pointed against you, what would you-"

"I WILL DESTROY IT!" The King's reply was swift and without hesitation. "Destroy it and its wielder. I will not suffer traitors in my court!"

Athrun's eyes widened at the King's swift decisiveness. "I see."

"They are my creations. Their existence is but a gift of my whim. That is my love for them. But if they return my love with betrayal, there will be no negotiation, no compromise. The penalty is death. That is my principle." The King reiterated his simple law: defy him and die. The King chuckled. "But that will never happen to me, unlike you. I have full loyalty of my subjects."

Athrun chuckled bitterly at himself. He had a 'faint' idea as to why his weapons won't betray him. "Let me guess. Because they were made from you? Because they are part of you? Because they are, literally, you?"

"And you're saying your creations are not?" The King's direct reply shocked Athrun. "Something exists because it was created. But, above all, if the creators do not put his own self into it, then it will never exist."

"I know that." Athrun growled lazily. "Which is why I'm asking you, if it is suddenly pointed at you, what would you do? You just said you'll destroy them without mercy. Doesn't that mean you'll destroy a part of yourself?"

"Indeed." The King nodded gloomily.

"And you'll feel nothing about it?"

"I will mourn for it." The King answered simply. "Even royalties are allowed that. I will cry, I will rage. But NEVER regret. How can I regret ever bringing something to existence? You humans call it… what was it? The cycle of life. When something was born, they will eventually die out. It is the same for something that is created. They will come a time, when you must un-create it. It's just the matter if you are willing to do it, or if you know how to do it." The King looked at Athrun's reaction.

The thunderstruck boy's eyes were as wide as it can get. But then, he burst out laughing out of wazoo. "BWAAHAHAHAHAA!"

"Take care when you are laughing in my presence, mongrel! If you do not explain this outburst right this instant, I will have you flayed to the inch of your-"

"No, no, no… it's not that… I… Ha, ha… what you just said just now… the wordings are a bit different but… a very old friend of mine once said the same thing. He said since I'm good at making stuff, then I better think of something to counter stuffs, in case the stuff were used against me. A deterrence principle, he called it jokingly." Athrun chuckled bitterly. That's right. It was Kira who taught him to always, ALWAYS, think of two: the action plan and the counter plan; his advice when they tried to one-up Lennore or Yuki in chess games – they never managed to win against them though… But, He's been using that principle in his strategies, why didn't he bother using it on his inventions? "I said… I, naively and stupidly, said to him: I'd die first before that happen. Now… I'm just regretting I didn't listen to him." DAMN his naivety.

"Hm. Your friend is wise."

"Ahaha. Maybe you should meet him. You might like him." Athrun rethink his words, reminded of Kira's attitude towards those so stuck up in authoritative complex, which range from humiliating them to outright brutalize them, and then he chuckled. "On second thought, no. He'll hate your guts to kingdom come."

"Don't get me wrong. As a King I must measure all justly. I give praise where it's due. Then, what are you going to do now?"

"Deterrence principle." Athrun smirked. "I just got an idea. I need to wake up now. You mind?"

"Hmph. Do as you like." The King nodded in allowance and then vanished, throne and all.

Outside, Athrun's eyes sprang open, coming face to face with Yoon and Ka-chan looking at him inches away from his face. Having two girls looking at him at such close proximity shocked him a bit. "…what?"

"A-a-a-a-are you having… a nightmare?" Yoon stuttered nervously.

"You're moaning. In your sleep. Something about creation and deterrence principle." Ka-chan added.

"…" Athrun get up. His eyes gleaming with life. "…Ms. Yoon… you said… you were a metallurgist engineer?"

"H… Hai…"

"Perfect." Athrun smiled confidently. That's exactly what he needed to create what he wanted. Leaving the confused Ka-chan and Yoon, Athrun marched straight towards the steel door. The guards who saw the prisoner coming their way with a determined look naturally get on their guard. Athrun looked at one of the guards and growled. "Call your Head Warden. Tell him, I'll build him his damn steam engine."

"EEEHH?" Everyone bar Athrun shrieked in shock.

0000000000000

"…you're serious?" The Head Warden's remaining eye blinked several times in disbelief. He had been told that the Zoan boy had changed his mind, he did not expect it will be this quickly. With him are his two aides, the burly torturers and one of the Head Scientists working at the Steam engine.

"How could you…! GRGHHH!"

"Very. But, I have a condition."

"NO! WAIT A MINUTE! WHAT the… GRRRRRHH!"

"Shut the fuck up, ZOAN! You don't have a god-damn say in the matter!" One of the torturers growled menacingly. But the Head Warden interjected: "Let's hear it."

"LET ME GOOOOOOOOO!" Everyone turned around and finally looked at Ka-chan, who's currently struggling to break herself free. As soon as Athrun announced that he will help build the steam engine, Ka-chan went ballistic and tackled him to the ground, demanding explanation. By the time the Head Warden get there, she's in the process of choking the life out of Athrun with her chain-bound being. 20 or so Troopers get in and put her on restraints, that is after she took several ferocious bites on some of her captors and bashing their heads with hers, knocking some of them flat out. Now they hold fast to her being from a mile away with wraps of chains, and she still struggled.

The Head Warden shook his head, decided to ignore her and make a mental note to sedate her later. "And… you need what?"

"I need two assistants: them." Athrun pointed at the still startled Yoon and… to the horror and shock of everyone… Ka-chan, who stopped struggling the moment that came out from the boy's mouth to God's ear. "I had a little chat with them, turns out the two are EXACTLY what I need to make the steam engine you need."

"Is that so?" The Head Warden rubbed his beard several times, measuring Athrun's request. "Anything else? Besides proper equipment and other raw material you might need?"

"Food. I don't need plenty, just enough so that I can move properly like humans." Athrun pointed at his state, where he needed to be carried around. That's impractical, no matter what.

The Head Warden mutely agree with that point of concern. "I see. Well, counting from the time it took for us to provide the materials can I expect you'll the deliver the prototype… in a month?"

"A week."

"Or maybe a… what?" The Head Warden lean forward to check if his hearing has gone senile. "Say that again?"

"First prototype, a week. At the latest, two weeks. But that's relative." Athrun quickly set up his delivery date. The Head Scientist jaw dropped, just as he dropped the files in his hand. "Provided you can give me the materials fast enough. I'll give you the list of materials as soon as I finished improving the blueprint."

"A… Are you trying to make fun of us?" The Scientist growled. "70 years… no, we've been trying to do this for at least 200 years! And you're saying you can create one that short of a time!?"

"I'm not laughing at the painstaking efforts and progress you've made. What I've had in mind was based on your studies in the last 200 years. I'm culminating it in my own idea. Plus, this is something I've tried to build before – no… I've BUILT it before. It's very feasible to build. I just need to improve on its design."

"Show us the blueprint!" The Head scientist demanded, but Athrun answered:

"Over. My. Dead. Body." Everyone from the Alliance gritted their teeth in a threatening manner, but Athrun was undaunted and pointed at his head. "It's right here. In MY head. I NEVER wrote it down. Not even my own people know how to build it. I alone and only I knew how to make it. If you want it, you'll HAVE to kill me, and I'm ready to take it to my grave!" Athrun suddenly grabbed his own neck. "I may be weak right now, but I'm still a trained warrior. I can do this on reflex, and my regeneration won't work when I'm at this weak state. You know that, right, Warden?"

The Alliance side was at an impasse. They all looked at the Warden for the final decision. The Head Warden think carefully. "The Korean Girl, I understand. She's a metallurgist. Though she claimed to be low grade, she's from Orb. Even low grade count for something. But why the blondie?" He was referring to Ka-chan.

"Easy. Brute force." Athrun answered simply. "The thing I'm about to do require an instant application of huge amount of force, in a very short time, in a very hostile environment. Not the kind of thing that is suitable for a large number of burly muscular guys."

At this, the two burly torturers next to the Head Warden growled angrily. But Athrun ignored it.

"Obviously. If it were just me, I'd do it myself. But since you deny me my full strength… I need the best second option available." Athrun was referring to the fact that it took the Alliance that much effort just to restrain Ka-chan. "Besides… for the prospect of releasing Miss Ka-chan here… well, you've captured her before… what's so hard of capturing her again if she tried to do anything funny, hm?"

"I'll have you know, I heard she sent half of my men to hospital when we first captured her." The Head Warden glared at Ka-chan, who still showed no remorse for her rampage.

"But you still. Captured. Her." Athrun repeated the point.

The Head Warden played with his greying beard, measuring up his gains and losses. His Subordinates doesn't like this. Not. One. Bit. After minutes of consideration that felt like hours, came the words that seal the deal. "So be it. But you will be put under guard and constant surveillance. And Miss… blondie here better behave. Or it'll be boomstick all around."

Athrun smiled, Yoon fretted, and Ka-chan looked like she was on the verge of biting everyone in the room.

0000000000000

In a short order, Athrun was fed to the point he was able to stand and walk on his own, but as instructed by the Head Warden, they took meticulous care at every bite that went inside his mouth.

And then, Athrun, Yoon and the still bound Ka-chan, being dragged, were brought to the lab. Once there, every alliance scientist glared at Athrun. The Head Scientist had told his colleagues of Athrun's absurd claim of coming up with a prototype of a miniaturized Steam engine in a week. These are balding elder veteran scientists. The brightest minds of the Naturals. Many of them, judging by their whiting falling hair and the amount of wrinkles in their faces, might have been doing this before Athrun was born.

So when someone told them that a young upstart hotshot scientist is going to put them all out of work en-masse; none of them were too pleased. Not. One. Bit.

"Well?" The Head Warden raised his hands. "Get to work." And then, a moment later, the steel door was closed.

Athrun can feel all eyes turned on him. He pay them no mind, took a deep breath, and think calmly for the task at hand. A miniaturized steam engine… he made one before… now he just need to improve on the design. He looked around, searching for paper and something to write. Alas, with every scientist I the room against him, it looks like no one wants to even lend him a piece of paper or even a drop of ink.

Athrun sighed. He really became the most hated person in the room, eh? He looked around and saw a sack of sand. He took the sack, found a flat board and pour the sand to the board, and then flattened the sand. He plucked a stick to use as pen and then he began to work, drawing schematics on the sand 'paper'. A blueprint. At first, it was just a bunch of lines and nonsensical lines. Every time Athrun scribed a few dozen pictures, but then he stopped, entered a short deep thought, shook his head and swept the sand clean, starting fresh. This continued for several hours, and in that span of time, the boy had reset his sand paper at least a hundred times.

Even the currently foul tempered Ka-chan stopped squirming and looked at the boy at work with increasing interest. After a while, Ahrun finally stopped resetting his sand paper and just continue drawing as the blueprint began to take shape. He has two drawings. One was a cross section of something circular in shape, the other looked like a tall trees composed of pipes. They are sketches of blueprint of a gigantic engine. Ka-chan saw multiple times of how Athrun stopped his drawings for a moment to look at the condition of that cave. Whatever he's building will integrate the structure of this cave. Now it's just the matter off…

"Oops." One of the scientist accidentally dropped his stuff right on top of the forming blueprint of the sand paper, ruining it. Ka-chan twitched in anger. The scientist not so clumsily, roughly took his stuff back, but purposefully making big strides, ruining the half completed blueprint even further. He then left with a satisfied smile without offering so much as an apology.

It was obvious they just sabotaged Athrun's work and they're trying to make sure he will not succeed. The boy didn't seem to be annoyed in the least. But his reaction was calm but swift. He turned to the guards: "Oi, how long are you two going to keep the girl bound? Let her go!"

The Guards blinked at each other. It seems they had forgotten the fact that Ka-chan was still bound in layers of chains. Then again, even if they haven't forgotten, they're still reluctant to let this monster in human form go, remembering the Hell they went through. Athrun didn't blame them. Ka-chan looked like she's ready to give everyone in this room a good smash up or two, especially Athrun. The inventor boy sighed and approached her. He whispered in her ears: "Work with me. What I'm making is your ticket out of here. But I need your help. So please. Bear with me."

Upon hearing this, Ka-chan stopped struggling. But her mood only improved slightly. "You're serious?" She hissed in annoyance.

"Well… on the scale of 1-10…"

Without hearing the odds, Ka-chan sighed in understanding. "Get these chains off me!"

Athrun smiled in relief and then he glared at the guards: "You heard her!"

And then one by one, they began removing the straps of chains binding Ka-chan. It was then Athrun get a better look at Ka-chan's true form in all her glory. Her hands were both bandaged, and she wear a sleeveless khaki colored Yukata with green ragged trimmings that was meant for male. Beneath it, she covered her body in bandages as well. Apparently it was there as both underwear and to cover her womanly features. She also wear a dark green trousers that cover all the way to below her knees. And she wear wooden sandals. Many of her articles seem to be out of place when being worn by a girl, but in Athrun's opinion, they truly suit her.

Ka-chan cracked her knuckles and neck before stretching her body, earning cracks from everywhere. "Oh, damn it… I'm gonna be all sore in the morning…" She snapped an angry look at each of her captors and they jumped back in horror. Then she turn to Athrun, who's currently mending his work. "Well? What do you need me do? You wanna do something it'll be more productive if you include me in the planning process."

"Well… for now just give me the peace and quiet so that I can just finish this." Athrun smiled anyway as he finished repairing the damage on his blueprint and then continue to work.

Unfortunately, peace and quiet is in short supply when everyone around you wish to see you fail.

Some random guy spilled his coffee on his blueprint, another guy purposefully bumped on him, and another tripped on nothing and fell head first into the sand paper making a dusty mess.

5 minutes later…

The random guy was being carried into the ward when he forcibly swallowed his own coffee can in one gulp, another guy had to be plucked out of the recently appeared human shaped crater in the cave wall, with an imprint of a wooden sandal soles plastered on his sunken chest, and another had a major brain concussion after being flicked – with a finger - on the forehead, 50 feet off the ground.

All courtesy to Athrun's new short tempered blonde haired tomboy girl bodyguard.

And when the doctors came in to get the third patient Athrun took the chance to hand them something. "Give this to the warden. It's a list of materials that I need to build what he asked."

Once the doctors left, Athrun can feel an eerie look from one Ka-chan. "Yes?'

"You're serious? You really are going to build him… whatever he asked for?"

"I gave him the list. Now either he figures it out or he doesn't." Athrun smiled confidently. Ka-chan shook her head, giving up on trying to figure him out – for now. Then she handed him something. "This is?"

"Empty fresh papers. Those three bozo stooges won't need them anytime soon. I thought you need this to… well… copy these down." Ka-chan jerked her thumb at the massive blueprint on the sand paper.

Athrun smiled in genuine gratitude. "Thank you." And he went to work jotting down his creation into the newly provided paper. In 15 minutes he was done copying everything and he's set to work immediately. "Now… I'm just gonna need the materials… until the head Warden gave me what I want… I'll make do with what we have."

And what they have at the moment were a bunch of scrap metals and old and failed steam engine prototypes – the smallest was the size of a cartwheel. "Ka-chan, your turn again."

"Yeah?"

"Each of these steam engine should still have boilers. Take out all the widgets and gears and… and… and… all these… stuff…" Athrun motioned his hand around all the features of the Steam Engine. "All I need is the boilers. So can you please break them all down accordingly?"

"Just the boilers?"

"Just the boilers." Athrun nodded. "And I need 12 of them so you better get started."

"Right I get that." Ka-chan calmly grabbed a piston, and with but a single jerk, she rip the steel piston easily with a snap. And whjile Ka-chan noisily dismantle the engines, Yoon looked at Athrun, uncertain on what exactly he need her to do. Athrun smiled and motioned her to come close. "This is what I need you to do."

0000000000000

The next few days, great changes began to happen inside that underground lab.

The guards were given one task: to stick to Athrun like paint to make sure he's not doing anything funny. And yet, they were being hard pressed to keep up with the supposedly weakened boy. One thing for sure: there are a LOT of noises, a LOT of unexplained explosions every 10 minutes. Even The Head Warden, though not a scientific man, was inclined to come down and watch if for an hourly inspection.

The insides of the lab had been changed completely. A gigantic towering structure is now at the center of attention. The 12 boilers from the dismantled Steam Engine were modified into a dome structure. Athrun redesigned it into an airlock chamber. Every air inside the chamber were sucked out, it's vacuum inside. The Airlock Chamber domes were lifted up and put on the ceiling, attached in encirclement around each of the 12 largest Stalactites. And there's one thing: the temperature inside that cave have somehow, due to Athrun mysterious machination, is steadily dropping to the point everyone began puffing smoke from their lips. It was obvious Athrun truly know what he was doing, and he really went all out. The thing he created was very massive in size and scope.

"I thought the idea was to miniaturizethe steam engine?" The Head Warden's eye blinked in disbelief at the sheer scale of this construction. This is nothing like their egghead scientists ever done before. "Why is the engine so bilge swellingly huge?"

"This is NOT a steam engine." Athrun's report earned a glare from the head Warden. "This is the machine to BUILD the engine." Athrun quickly added, much to the surprise of every listener.

"The thing to CREATE steam engine? Goodness gracious, we were expecting you'll build just one engine!"

"Well… to say it in layman's term, to build the steam engine I need this thing to make it. Plus… it's a one off. The process is rather… explosive." Athrun scratched his head. "So explosive that I request… that when I start… everyone but me must vacant the premises." It was then the Head Warden noticed, that, at the very bottom of this super structure, there are three chambers, and they are connected. All the hundreds of pipes connected to the stalactites all end up going into that chamber. The dome chamber was hollow and it was noticeably smaller than the airlock dome that encapsulated the stalactites above. Its hollow insides seem were supposed to place something spherical the size of a basket ball inside the chambers.

"You're going to build three? Three all at once?"

"It's a LOT easier than building just one." Athrun groaned. "I learnt it the hard way when I tried the first time."

"And you're going to use those stalactites yeah? What on earth you're gonna need them for?"

"It's essential." Athrun answered short. "Normal steam engine use steam derived from water. Mine use… an artificial compound. One drop of this liquid can produce explosive amount of steam. And I need a chemical compound that I'll distill from those stalactites."

The Head Warden was no scientist so he was rather glad for the lack of details. At least he understand from the simple explanation that Athrun need the stalactites for something. "I still don't understand. You're saying you've built this before? Why didn't Zaft use it?" The Head Warden asked out of pure curiosity.

"…I condemned it." Athrun pointed at the Stalactite. "The process will corrode and reduce those stalactites into stumps. Do you know how long it'll take for those giant stalactites to form to be of that size, mr. Warden, sir?" Athrun answered his own question right away. "Took about 200 to 300 years. Even if I created this thing, the power is enough to sustain an entire city for only… what, 20, 30 years? We're trading a momentary time of comfort and prosperity for an eternal destruction. One hell of a way to preserve our nature."

The Head Warden chuckled warmly. "Well… we've already done a grand job of destroying the surface with our wars. I think we're bound to leave some nice heritage to our children." That was sarcasm, but pointed at no one in particular but everyone who's involved in this god forsaken war. Naturally, even Athrun was somewhat caught off guard hearing such thing from his adversary. "Still… I must profess myself surprised. You really went all out for us. It's more than I hope for. And just a few days ago you were so adamant of refusing to even accept our aid."

"Better doing something than nothing." Athrun answered short. "At least it'll keep me sane long enough. I always think better when I'm working."

There's only one impediment to this whole project… "GYAA! WAARGH! HELP! HELP!"

Athrun and the Head warden looked at the direction of the commotion and sighed exasperatedly, knowing who it was: Ka-chan.

In short, Ka-chan and two other guards involved, the Head Warden's two burly torturers, were brought before the judges.

"What is it this time?"

"SEXUAL HARASSMENT THAT'S WHAT!" Ka-chan roared. "I saw the two gave Yoon a dirty look and make sexist comments!"

Athrun slapped his head and say nothing. The Head Warden gruffly groaned. 'I'm too old for this crap.' "You two!"

The two Torturers' gasped. "Sir?"

"I don't want to see you two here again. IS THAT CLEAR?"

"But sir-"

BANG! A moment later, one of the torturers were shot on the thigh as the Head Warden holster back his smoking triple barreled flintlock sidearm. "Get him out of here." A growl from the uninjured torturer and he quickly dragged his partner away. The Head Warden gave one warnful glance to Ka-chan, but mellowed slightly upon seeing Athrun approached the girl, clearly to reprimand her. With that, the head Warden left at that note.

"Goodness gracious, girl. Even a raging half mad horse don't have your temper." Athrun sighed.

Ka-chan growled in annoyance. "All this work and you never actually told me what exactly you had in mind." Ka-chan glared angrily at Athrun, finally revealing the source of her irritation. "I mean… a moment ago you'd rather die than to help them. Now all the sudden, you work your ass off to build this thing. What's the big idea?"

"…well… you're the one who said I better do something then waiting to die." Athrun chuckled.

"Sorry about that. Well, at least you look better now." Ka-chan finally grinned. "You really are an egghead. It's amazing you can… build… all this."

"It's based on something I build before. Just made some improvements to the design."

"Uh-huh. Well, I'm no techie… I do the heavy lifting around here, but I've been seeing a lot of stuff in Morgenroete… And I think it's quite amazing, even by our standards."

"Oh really? By your standard eh?" Athrun laughed in a slight sarcasm.

"Did I say something funny?"

"No… it's just… I really appreciate your praise… but somehow I don't think the people of the Morgenroete thought very highly of me or of my creation."

Ka-chan blinked several times at that comment. "Wait… you've been to Morgenroete before?"

"No. But I once had a correspondence with Morgenroete in Berlin. I sent them a theoretical thesis regarding this engine for them to study. They were kind enough to return my thesis and wrote a rather 'gentle' letter." Athrun laughed.

"'Gentle'?" ka-chan's brows furrowed, noticing a certain emphasis on the word. "How gentle?"

"Well, let's just say they told me to take my time and revise my… childish… design."

"Childish? You know, maybe you ought to put some sense or two into that stuck up eggheads at the academy-"

"Oh no. They were right. I designed this thing when I was 8. It was… an incomplete technology, married with immaturely flawed design." Athrun smiled kindly. "Like you, I didn't buy their opinion at first. I mean, the theory was solid! What could go wrong? That's what I thought. To prove it, I built one."

"…and?" Ka-chan looked at Athrun intently, apparently she too were wondering if he succeeded.

But Athrun quickly remembered the explosion. The screams of pain. The devastation, the mass destruction. "It's a spectacular mess. (chuckles)." Athrun looked at Ka-chan meaningfully and with a painfully fake smile that even Ka-chan quickly saw through. "…it tore out my lower half. Took me 3 months of hourly feeding to get my body back in shape." Athrun motioned his hand waist down. "But more importantly…"

Ka-chan's face wrinkled in horror. "More importantly?"

"…my immaturity nearly killed one of my best childhood friend, the one who also helped me built the first prototype." Athrun tucked his head down in regret and sorrow. "My late mother, God bless her soul, never forgave me, and for a while she forbid me from doing any experiments of any kind. I had my own soul searching to do, so I didn't argue."

"But eventually that didn't stop you inventing?" Ka-chan smirked. "Some eggheads can't be put down after all."

"To my regret, no. I guess not." Athrun chuckled. "Speaking of Morgenroete, you still think your Samurais won't come here to help?"

"I'm sure they're looking for us… but… I'm not sure if their intention is to help us or just to maintain status quo." Ka-chan spat bitterly at the last point.

"Status quo?" Athrun took note of this bitter tone, and of the girl's aversion to the samurais. "You'll forgive me if ask… you have something against the Samurais?"

"…" Ka-chan brows furrowed again and she sighed. "…it's just… it's just that I think we're not doing enough." Athrun blinked. "We were supposed to be neutral, I understand that. We do not interfere, we do not let them interfere, we kept on the sidelines all the time. But… sometimes I'm beginning to think we've mistook neutrality with ignorance."

"I'm sure your leaders only did what's best for their people."

"Are we? Before I get here, I was in this small town called Amaterasu. It's pretty backwater, but it's not entirely small town either. Alliance soldiers, only THREE of them, infiltrated the city and the Zafties brought a whole God damn army, with a Whities in a mask at the helm just to take them out."

"Ah." Athrun gaped. 'Amaterasu? Oh shit, Ka-chan was there!?' Looks like Athrun will be feeling the after effects of that whole mess in Japan for a very long time in the future. Apparently Ka-chan didn't realize that the person in front of him was one of the parties directly responsible for the debacle in Amaterasu.

"There are over half a million people living in that city. People with families and loved ones. I told them, I TOLD them we need to send some help! They only sent a few Marines and Shinobis, me included, with Barry Ho at the helm to help!" Ka-chan finally burst in anger. "I mean… we have an army of Super Soldiers and the most powerful Navy in the world, and for what? Killing our own people when they were in fact under peril?"

"…I…" Athrun find himself couldn't help to agree to Ka-chan's point. If only the Samurais were there, the Zaft army would think twice before start bombing that village out of a whim of some conceited emissary. And Kira… Oh God, may nothing happen to him. He took a deep breath. "But do you really think… if Orb go actively to war, it'll turn out better for your people?"

"No. That I won't allow." Ka-chan turned her sharp golden gaze to the surprised Athrun. "You know what people called my country? The Country of Peace. Many people tried to go to our country for safe haven. You… seen it before? Queues of broken tired people marching across a great disastrous warzone, desperate to reach safety. Do you know how many of these people actually made it?"

"I do." Athrun nodded in a bitter tone. "…a very low percentage. Many died on the road, by sickness, or by bandit attacks or… whatever… But some were… executed for treason… by overzealous factions they once belong to." Yes, not just Orb; the Alliance, or Zaft… neither like deserters.

"Way I see it, any sane people would've wanted some small measure of peace in this era of turmoil. To my happiness, my country was more than willing to give that peace. But… we just sit here in our high places, waiting, doing NOTHING! People are dying right in front of us while we ponder on whether we should help them or let them starve to death right in front of us. We ignore the lives that we can save just so that we can maintain our… policy."

Athrun shrugged. So this girl another one of those politic hater type. Another point of similarity with Kira. Interesting. "Your point? That you think Samurais should go out there saving people instead of waiting for them to come?"

"EXACTLY!" Ka-chan jerked her fist up.

Athrun chuckled. "But I don't think it'll be as easy and simple as you say. Imagine the chaos when Samurais start marching into another country. Remember, they once nearly destroyed the whole world. Nowadays, though very rare, but there are still some people who call them destroyer of nations."

"That issue is over a few hundred years old. Now we just want to help people and give them protection! It's that simple!" Ka-chan roared. "…we can do so much more. So much more if we just… took even just one small step over the line and…"

"But if that was to happen, many people will go to Orb. Alliance and Zaft won't let too many of their citizens to leave. How could they?"

"Why won't they?" Ka-chan barked back. "It's because of those two bunch of idiots fighting one another that this world has gone to hell with no end in sight!"

"Uh-huh, well." Athrun cleared his throat. "Let's… put this on hold for now. We could go on about this… forever. Plus, we got work to do."

"Uh-huh. Okay. Being all cautious sounds good and all… But could please tell me WHAT exactly are you making?" Ka-chan lost her patience again and grabbed Athrun's collar, shaking him violently in pure frustration.

"O-okay. Okay. You win. Ermm… Guards? We're a bit tired. Can we get some rest for a bit? Yoon, you too." Somehow, the request was granted. They prolly feared that if it was denied, Ka-chan would've… like, blow a fuse and kicked their asses from rear to front. And so they let the three left the lab, after the usual routine of blindfolding them.

Meanwhile, a certain pair of eyes looked at Athrun's work with malice shining from his eyes…

0000000000000

"This thing I'm making is not a steam engine per se." Athrun began explaining as the three had their supper. "This thing is a container. A small portable container for an exorbitant amount of steam."

"A container?"

"I think I've spoke of this before, but the reason steam engine are so inefficient, is because the engine consume as much power as it produce. So, this 'engine' remove all the things that drain that power: the pistons, the gear, even the boiler." Athrun raised a finger: "Let's simplify things: what we use from the steam engine is not the piston, not the water, but merely the steam right? So what if, instead of an engine that process water into steam and then use it, this thing store steam in its purest form. Only to be easily released in time of need, just about as easy as one uncork a bottle and drink the water when they're thirsty."

"But how do you 'store' steam? Steam is gas. Won't that thing just… seep right out of it?"

"With this." Athrun showed Ka-chan what he and Yoon had made. A metallic spherical contraption, with bronze framework and silvery surface.

"And this is…?"

"My design for container to maintain exorbitant amount of steam in a very small space. Once I've distilled the substance from the stalactite, the resulting chemical will explosively evaporate into massive amount of steam. The engine I've been building will condense and instantaneously compress all that steam straight into a near solid state. All that will be packed and stored in here. Hence we get a small sized but extremely, extremely powerful steam energy in solid form." Athrun showed Ka-chan the basket ball sized contraption. "One of these… these Steam Balls can unleash steam energy that can shame a hundred of the most powerful steam engines per second. It can even work full throttle for ages and still capable of doing extra laps for a couple decades or so."

Ka-chan whistled at Athrun's description of what his engine can do. "But… if this thing is as powerful as you say… why do I get the feeling of this thing has extremely, EXTREME 'danger' written allover it?" The blonde girl glared at Athrun.

"W-Well… it's because-" Athrun momentarily glanced around him, searching for eavesdropper. There are none he can find. "Because the construction of these Steam Balls had to be meticulously, ridiculously precise to a fault. The steel that formed the Steam Sphere had to be welded to perfection with as little flaw as possible. One small fault in the metal, and the result won't be… err… pretty." He also glanced proudly to Yoon. "Yoon here has been a GREAT help. If it weren't for her skills in metallurgy, I'll never be able to create a container that is not only small, but can also withstand enormous amount of internal pressure. With very little to no fault to boot!"

Yoon blushed to his ears at the praise. "N-n-n-no way. I'm not that good!"

"Sheesh! I told you not to sell yourself short, Yoon!" Ka-chan also grinned widely at the recognition her friend received. "But I'm surprised that you, the inventor of this thing actually need other people's help."

Athrun, blushing in shame, conceded and explained. "The first prototype I made when I was 8, a bad faulty metal was accidentally mixed in the welding of the container." Athrun frowned. "My friend was an expert with an eye for observation of small details. He was supposed to check every metal that went into the container for faults and cracks."

"And he fumbled?"

Athrun mourned even more miserably. "He didn't. I did. I rushed out and he was against it. Long story short, my lab turned into disaster area when the container exploded."

"Exploded…" Suddenly everything clicked to Ka-chan. "Wait, this thing is a B-!?" Before she can yell the last word out loud, Athrun and Yoon spontaneously closed her mouth with their hands. Ka-chan looked at both Athrun and Yoon in horror.

"Yes. It's EXACTLY what you think it is. And the power we will pack into it will be enough to wipe out this small island off the map."

Silence for ten seconds from Ka-chan's part to comprehend what Athrun just said.

And then…

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATT!?" The entire island suffered a 1 Richter scale earthquake in the time it took for Ka-chan to finish the scream.

And then Athrun suffered a localized earthquake when a hysterically angry and freaked out Ka-chan is shooking him back and forth. "ARE YOU CRAZY!? ALL THAT TALK ABOUT MAKING THINGS RIGHT AND YOUR BIGGEST IDEA IS MAKING THE DEADLIEST THING EVER!? YOU CRAZY DUMBFUCK YOU…!"

"Ka-chan! Calm down! Let him talk! Ka-chan!" Yoon tried to hold on Athrun to stop him from shaking, but she was carried along and as also shaking. The tremor continued for a minute or so, until finally…

"Urk…"

Ka-chan stopped shaking and looked at Athrun's pale face. A moment later, Ka-chan unhand the still shaking boy, and a moment later, he ran to the corner holding his mouth and throw up full force out of severe motion sickness, while Yoon were still feeling the aftershock as her head is still shaking. But as soon as her head stop shaking she too ran to the corner and throw up.

A moment later…

"As it stands… gulp… it's too late to stop what they're doing here." Athrun finally stopped shaking after 5 minutes. "The Alliance was too deeply entrenched here. They've been doing what they're doing for far too long, and, even if we only escape here, there will be no point. They'll just start over somewhere sometime else. I will put a stop to it."

"But a bomb? Zala, a bomb!? What's more, THREE of them?"

"No. Just one." Athrun shrugged.

Ka-chan blinked in confusion.

"I'm making three. But, one of the three will have a slight engineering defect…" Athrun meaningfully tapped the metallic sphere in his hand. "Which will cause it to explode violently when the breach ruptured."

"Destroying the island and killing us along with it!?" Ka-chan growled dangerously.

"No, not exactly. It won't destroy instantly, no." Athrun chuckled. "Based on what I gather from our brief exploration at the top surface, this whole facility was buried underground, in a tower like construction. They can wind and turn here and there while blindfolding us all they like, but already got a good grasp of the structure of this place." To make his point, Athrun handed Ka-chan a piece of paper with doodles on it. The doodles depicted a towering structure. A tall pillar… but judging by Athrun's depiction, the tower extend underground instead of skyward. "Right now we are here. At the 15th floor." Athrun pointed right at the center of the tower. "And the Steam Engine is down below, roughly 5 floors right below us. The bottom floor."

"Right below us?"

"Yes. Right below us." Athrun jerked his thumb down. True enough, right where Athrun's standing, his steam engine was laying down there, 5 floors below. "A twenty stories underground tower. Quite impressive for a natural's engineering skills, if I may say so. But more importantly is this… this whole 'tower' is like a beehive. The lower levels naturally supported the upper structure. If enough of its lower foundation was knocked out, the weight of the upper floors will collapse from top to bottom… this whole facility will be destroyed by its own weight."

"What… you're gonna blow this place from bottom to top?"

"No… umm… let me put it this way…" Athrun began explaining. "When the Steam Ball ruptured, the gas that came out of it will explosively begin to absorb all ambient heat in the surrounding… summarily… they'll FREEZE everything they came in contact with at sub zero temperature… It's the nature of the chemical mixture I packed into that thing. Exposed to outside open air, it the chemical bond will break down and generate enormous amount of exhaust. That's what you get when you compress and compacted gas at a very low temperature."

"Uuuhh… and?" Ka-chan had already showed signs of mind boggled.

"…well… all I'm saying… that when the steam sphere blow up, the explosion will freeze the entire 4 lowest floors… and it'll progress upward… after which, due to the weakening integrity of the tower's understructure, the whole complex will began to systematically collapse as the foundations breaks… bit by bit." Athrun made a little calculation in his head. "If my math is right… and it always is… you two will have 20 minutes to escape before the whole tower completely destroyed." Athrun looked at ka-chan… and notice the girl was smoking from her ears. Her brain nearly short-circuited.

"Like jenga tower, Ka-chan. Jenga tower!" Yoon quickly gave what she think a proper analogy.

"Jenga tower?" Athrun never heard of it. But Ka-chan somehow understand. "Ah… you mean tower where you knock off the bottom section and the rest fell down to place, huh? Okay. I got it."

"H… huh?" And now it's Athrun's turn to nearly short circuit. Nearly.

"Look, I don't understand a single thing of what you're saying." Ka-chan growled. "But I do understand the process is STILL about you DESTROYING THIS WHOLE PLACE!? Along with us?"

"No. Of course not. You two will be far away when that happens." Athrun added with a smile. "Remember what I said to the Head Warden? I told him that I need to be alone when the process begins. I'd wager you two will be HERE when it starts."

Ka-chan eyes widened and Yoon clasped her mouth in horror. "Zala-kun… you'll be at Ground Zero?"

"Yes."

Ka-chan was about to shook Athrun senseless again, but then the raven haired boy raised his fist and showed his fist.

What they saw send their eyes wide.

"Relax. I've survived the explosion once before… and I'll survive it again." Athrun smiled confidently, seeing his fist in satisfaction.

The said fist being covered by layers and layers of black and red armor plates, forming a monstrous but kingly gauntlet.

"Armor…?" Ka-chan blinked. "W… Where did you get that armor… and… when did you put it on?"

Athrun grinned mischievously as he looked satisfyingly at his armored gauntlet. "Don't worry. The construction of the Steam Balls will be ready in 3 days. And in 3 days…"

Athrun balled his fist, and all the sudden, Ka-chan and Yoon were looking at a fully armored Knight.

"And in three days… we're going to WAR." The armored Athrun and Kokuyou declared.

0000000000000

At the same time, up there, on the port…

The Troopers were in panic when a single ship, bearing a distinct banner appeared on the horizon. The Troopers quickly reported this to the Head Warden. The said elderly soldier is already up there confirming the report with his binoculars. "Dear God, he's here already!?"

"Is this who I think it was?" One of the troopers swallowed a gulp. "A top brass finally came here."

"Not just any top brass…" The Head Warden swiped his mustache in concern and then he turned to his troopers. "Make all the nece4ssary preparations."

"Yes sir." And the trooper left.

"…that Djibrill guy… what does he want now?"

0000000000000

0000000000000

Zoan

Zoan, deriving from the word Zoanthrope, is a subspecies of the advanced, whose bloodline limit granted them with the ability to transform themselves from human into a different species. It was never clear as to how exactly the Zoan race came into beings. Originally, there are several theories regarding the origin of Zoans, such as the Zoans being a slight deviation and mutation of the Paramecia, that humanity was in fact a hodge podge of various kinds of animal genetic strands, and in Advanced, certain mutation had brought these genes to surface. Others say it was a mischief of the demons in form of mutational curses that perverted the gift from the Onis (Blooldine Limits). Or even more gross (and quite popular among Advanced haters) theory is that Zoans are bastard offspring of animal and human copulation. Subjectivity aside, there's actually one accepted theory that everyone was quite convinced to be truth. When George of Glenn divided the Advanced Race into three subspecies, he do so under the auspices in that the Zoans are, quite in fact, the first of the bloodline limits, preceding Paramecia and even Logia.

It was said that a long time ago, before Humans became the prevalent civilization, when the Oni clan is still the dominant race and thus the leading force in the war against demons, they learned the simple truth: animals had abilities that surpass their humanoid bodies in one way or another. Their senses are sharper, they sometimes possess natural weapons such as pincers and stingers, some even had wings allowing them to soar in the skies… fact is, the only thing stopping animals from defeating other races is the fact they lack the rationality and the power to think like the Onis (or normal humans do). The Oni scientists seek to find a way to utilize the animalistic power with the wit and skills of a sane mind, to create a powerful biological living weapon to fight at their side. And so they began experimenting and combining of DNA and fusing one species with another. Human, then was still considered no more than another livestock, were a popular choice for a guinea pig due to their genetic similarity with the Onis and their malleability.

At first, these experiments produce what even the Onis would've called abominations. In the war, these half human half beast chimera creatures were unleashed just like that as animals of war. They were mindless, savage monstrosities with incredible power of beasts, but lacking the wit to utilize their animalistic advantages. It was theorized that this unnatural savagery was caused by humanity's own savage and primitive nature, causing their own mental faculty to devolve. Disgusted by these unthinking aberrations, the current White Emperor ordered the experiment to cease immediately and all existing creatures were to be euthanized. The project was mothballed for centuries. During that time humans began to evolve and mature as a race. Still far cry from being modern, but they had improved in that they've learned the concept of using tools, creating family, self sustenance, worshipping of deities (the Onis) and creating civilization. Controversially, it was during this time the ancient ones once again push for another try of the old interspecies splicing project. They considered humans are now mature enough to accept these 'gifts' and that their own technique of DNA splicing had vastly improved since the previous project.

Against all odds, the project gained a go ahead, but with a very strict oversight. The project was initiated in a very small human subjects. The strongest and smartest warriors of that time were handpicked to receive the 'gift of the Gods'. The Onis also took extreme care on this attempt. The humans of that day were no longer the mindless savages they used to be. They are cunning warriors with intelligence and conscience. They seek to keep that aspect intact no matter what. And so, in order to maintain that one rule, the Onis decided to add a little mix into the DNA splicing process: their own genetic code.

The result was the first Zoans. Half human, half beast, but stronger than both. Of course there are still flaws. The first generation of Zoans (they were known by a different name at the time) may not be the rampaging monstrosities their predecessors used to be, but they are still outcast from their own people. They've gained beastlike capabilities, but they were unable to regain their human form ever again. Regardless, the Onis were not disheartened by this, and they continued their research to improve upon the initial dna splicing process. Flaws were discovered and rectified, improvements were made and the process was made more efficient. Later generation of the Zoans had finally learned to control their transformation. This allowed them to shift from human to animal forms. Not only they can now use the power of beast, they can also remain to be counted as among humans in every sense of the word.

The pinnacle of it was when humans actually exceeded the Oni's expectation when a Zoan creatively introduced the third form: the half human half beast mode. An interim between human and animal, but surprisingly stronger and more effective than either individual form. Even better was the fact that the humans can also maintain control and transform freely inbetween these three forms to suit the situation and still maintain their human sanity. It was this discovery of unexpected potential that first sparked the interest of the Onis of these humans, and they began to SERIOUSLY consider the possibility of actual assimilation with the human race. When the assimilation of humans and Onis did occur, this only brought the Zoans to perfection. By that time, they've ascended from mere bio human weapons into true species of Advanced, taking their rightful place alongside other classes, the Logia and Paramecia when George divided the Advanced race.

Perhaps due to their unique origin, the Zoans were attributed as the closest thing an Advanced can get to their original patriarch race. Due to their ancestry of being designed solely for combat, the Zoans are, in every way, super humans. None exhibit the superiority of the Advanced better than these Zoans: they are faster, stronger, and in some cases, far more intelligent than even average Advanced. That distinct strength was evident even in their human form, and it became even more prevalent in half human half beast or sometimes in beast form. The same reason as to why they were able to change their bodies is also the same reason that these Zoans possess incredible regenerative factor. Seeing that they were able to reshape every part of their body at will during transformation, they were also fully capable of healing their injured body parts at will. Some even possess such regenerative factor at instinctive level, and some even surpass the speed of Logia's regeneration – which already border on immortality.

But for all their benefits and strengths, the Zoans were not without a flaw. Transforming one's body is about not only changing one's shape, but it's also transformation down to the cellular level. It's about binding and unbinding countless molecules of oneself, and that process took up enormous amount of energy. Even worse when they are in half human and half beast mode. Their metabolism was accelerated and they burn large amount of calories with every passing seconds. Consequently, Zoans must constantly feed in order to replace their lost energy. What's more, the amount they eat are equally abominable. Their appetite was dependant on several factors, including but not limited to: what species they turn into, the kind of transformation, and more importantly, how often they abuse their power. Transformation state aside, even in normal circumstances a Zoan would still need substantial amount of food to manage day to day activities. This makes maintaining an army of Zoans in battle a logistical nightmare. Army rations enough to feed entire city for a year can disappear within days.

But logistical nightmare is the least of everyone's worries. If a Zoan were kept in a malnourished state for a prolonged period of time, at a certain point, their body will initiate what is known as Autophagy: self eating. They will burn their own cells, literally eating, and digesting their own self in order to gain the energy needed to survive. Herein lies the problem: the energy was provided so that the Zoan can do whatever it takes to survive, and ONLY to survive - by whatever means necessary. At this point, their instinct to survive will sometimes overwhelm all their rational human senses, causing momentary loss of sanity and the Zoan will attempt to eat anything. And that may also mean engage in cannibalism.

Autophagy was believed to be the transition stage to a perpetual berserk state that is known as Beast Out. Beast Out is believed to be some form of glitch during the Oni's DNA tempering. As mentioned before, the very first of the primitive Zoans were raging monsters. However, it is believed that these Proto-Zoans are far more powerful than their more evolved descendants. And though the Onis may seem to have rectified this problem, it became apparent that the glitch had never really disappeared. Autophagy was but a prelude of the dark genetic flaw within all Zoan. Abuse of the Zoans' transformation ability will cause the genetic imbalance between man and beast. Over time, with each transformation, the more a Zoan use their powers, bits of their humanity will be shaved away. The flaw manifest faster when they engage in Autophagy. Regardless of whether they use Autophagy or not, abuse or not, for most Zoans, Beast Out is inevitable. And when it happened, Zoans reverted into a monstrous form, not dissimilar with the Proto Zoan form of the past, and lose their human form and human self in the process. Like their predecessor, they became berserk rampaging monsters that will never stop killing and eating until everyone around them, friend and foe, are devoured and their bloodlust is sated. This inhuman survival instinct was more prevalent in Zoans with Carnivorous animal alter ego. During the battle of the Hundred fangs, 100 carnivorous Zoans of the Amber Fangriders, Zaft's specialized "carnivore only" zoan units were purposefully left starving halfway to death. After which they were unleashed upon the Alliance base to feed. All of them engage autophagy to the point until they went beast out. There were almost nothing left of the millions of the Alliance troopers that perished that day. Not even their bones.

0000000000000

0000000000000

And there you have it. This is the story from Athrun's side. This story is also a setting for the next arc of the Battle of the Central Plain. At least it will explain what happened to Athrun from the point he was put on trial (Chapter 6) and how he mastered Kokuyou during that time.

Relax. This will be a rather short arc, I only planned two chapters. It's a mini arc after all.

And about Kira's bloodline limit. In case some of you still had a hard time understanding it, let me put it this way.

Think of Kira's eye of Origin as a Google web search engine. You type a question, and the Search Engine will quickly surfed the net (in this case: the net is the Akashic Record) to look for the most fitting answer. Just like how Google Search engine brought up various kinds of website that we can surf and interface, the same can be said to Kira, his eyes brought the normally intangible Akashic record to the surface, allowing him to see and interact with it like some kind of physical elemental object.

Kira can gain complete understanding of the what, why, who, where, which in an instant clarity and then, as has been shown multiple times by previous chapter, he can simply erase the Cause Record, causing ALL Effect related to that Cause to be erased from the timeline, even the memories of that particular Effect will be gradually removed from the memories from even the perpetrator of that said effect because the Effect no longer, and never, existed in the first place, with the Cause removed. It's literally rewriting history in real time. But in truth, he can do others as well, just like what Jorm said, he can interact and interface, that means he can do anything other than erasing (IE: destroying) it – either add or rewrite it. He just hadn't (couldn't) done it yet.

The Akashic Record can be divided into two: the Origin Record (Cause) and the End Record (Effect). The catch is that Kira's eye of Origin is limited to simply things that are related to Causes – I.E. Why something happen. And it didn't just look for the answers from the past, but it will also look for the answers to the future. For example, if Kira was looking for the cause of an event that had yet to be understood at the current age or in the past – it means there's no answer in the past or present, the Eye of Origin will look to the future to search for the answer and then disseminate the information back to the current Kira. However, the information will be strictly pertained only to the Origin Portion of the Akashic Record. This is what it meant with the ability to Actively send information back and forth through time.

As for the other half… it can see the End portion of the Record, and like the Origin, Kira will be able to interact with it as well… but as to what its active ability can actually do… I'm still thinking about it. So that one will have to wait.