NOTE:

"Doryaaaaaaaaaa!": normal talking

"Charge!": special case

'Darn!': thoughts

GWA HA HA HA! : Giant creature speech

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING!

Please… read and review

Back during the time when the battle barge carrying Athrun was shot down…

Athrun had just gone into the armory when the bullet that hit the barge's magazine struck home. Almost instantly, he looked at the biggest reason this attack occurred. Kokuyou. The Fouth Super Weapon that he had personally taken from its storehouse in Artemis.

Athrun couldn't think of any reason as to why Alliance would bother attacking a lone battle barge bound for prison known to be reserved for Advanced of his sort other than the fact because this thing is on board. As to how they came to know this information, Athrun weren't sure, and he surely had no time to ponder on why or how. "No matter what happens, I can't let you be taken by them." Athrun quickly rushed in and took the sword out of its pedestal. But before he can do anything else, a second shot landed and shook the whole ship. Athrun lose his balance and accidentally cracked the black claymore that contains the liquid that is Kokuyou. Athrun steadied himself and saw the black liquid seeping out of the crack, trickling down his finger.

Upon actual physical contact for the first time with the liquid, the liquid suddenly glow bright violet purple, releasing red shockwave of light to every direction. And suddenly, Athrun felt like he was in a trance. He ignored everything, he ignored the cannonfire, he ignored the sinking ship… all that matters, is what he had to do with this thing in his hand. He knew what he must do.

And then, quickly enough, he lifted the claymore on top of his head with both of his hand, one holding by the handle, the other holding it by the blade. Athrun turn his gaze upward, looking at the blade… and only at the blade. His eyes became empty as if he was in a trance. Grasping the sword tightly, Athrun began pulling the blade, bending it. It was obvious that he's trying to break it, unleashing the liquid inside it. The horror of it is that Athrun opened his mouth right beneath the incoming liquid that will soon fell down.

The ship were but seconds away from exploding when the blade shattered, and the Kokuyou poured out of its broken container, showering Athrun.

Moments later, the Barge finally exploded full force…

Chapter 35:

Athrun's Side Part 2:

The Beast

Kobe Steak, Omar Lobster, whole roasted stuffed chicken, salmon and shellfish, beluga caviar, French bread, fresh fruits, and various kinds of other expensive spread, all set up on a regal long table. Not the kind of food that one can expect to get in a military base.

At the end of the long table, a rather obese man of Arabic descent wearing an all yellow with purple trimmings, he was bald save for a pair of sideburn trimmings of pale purple hair above his ears sat cozily on a chair large enough to hold his girth as his many waitresses served him plates after plates of food, and he's eating all of it. Sitting next to him, is another visitor, a notably younger man, a teen, standing around his 15, wearing a matching colored suit with the same purple trimming. He also had a matching purple hair, but the color is brighter, signing his younger age. Also, unlike his gluttonous counterpart, the man did not touch anymore food, but he left a small plate filled with little leftovers, signing that he had his fill. Instead of eating, the young man is patting a cat on his lap.

On the other end of the table, stood the Head Warden, with his two aides behind him. Unlike the two visitors, the elderly head warden did not touch even a single crumb, although he too was served with some food. And yet, the Warden did not flinch in front of the sight of such delicacies. His two aides, one of them limping due to that earlier gunshot wound, the two of them were drooling full force, and yet they cannot touch even one of them.

A full 30 minutes pass with only the sound of the fat man eating, and it was then he noticed that the Warden didn't eat. "Sgt. Andras. What's wrong? Why don't you eat? You're not feeling well?"

"I've had my fill, thank you, Mr. Djibrill, sir." Sergeant Andras, the Head Warden replied calmly.

"Hm. I guess you still feel bad about that failure in Artemis, eh Andras?" Djibrill the senior pointed his knife rather accusingly at the head Warden as he munched the steak in his mouth. "Well, I guess you should be." The man continued his feast, but at a slower pace. He took a glass and have the waitress filled it with Champagne. "Will it gladden you if I tell you that they, the people who humiliated you in Artemis, had failed to acquire the last 5th weapon?"

Sgt. Andras blinked in surprise. "Have they? How?"

"Mwu la Flagga was charged for its security. Last I heard, it is now safely stored away in the fortress Archangel." The man took a sip of the Champagne. "In the hand of that useless old oaf Harlbarton."

Andras clearly took offense on that comment, as his one eye quickly glared angrily at the fat offender.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Djibrill the senior chuckled. "I forgot he was your former captain." But it was obvious he didn't feel apologetic at all.

The Sergeant grunted. "Production of the armaments is well on schedule, as are the mass production of the new assault rifle being in full throttle, I expect they will be delivered to the Triplet Fortress in China on time, I will make sure of it myself, as usual."

"Of course you will, of course you will…" Djibrill wiped his mouth with a cloth provided by one of his waitresses. "But that's not what I want to talk to you about."

"Sir?"

"I've been hearing interesting… chatters." And now the man put a long pipe on his mouth, and in a trained fashion the waitress lit up the Cuban cigar at the tip. Djibrill took a deep breath and exhaled. "Just a few days ago, my logistic received the most peculiar list of items. Items, which, my scientific advisor convinced me, pertain to steam engine… of some kind." Djibrill smirked. His son, Djibrill Junior also stopped patting his cat and looked at Andras' reaction. "-the likes of which… that they just can't get their heads or tail about it. Which wouldn't trouble me… except the fact that the list was quite unforgiving in its specification and some of the materials were so rare… many of which demand a LOT more than a tad petty cash. And I've given them all to you. And yet I had not the report what you use them for."

"…" Andras remained silent.

"So… what's the story Andras?" Djibrill took another deep suck on his pipe and exhaled again. "We hadn't had a breakthrough in what… 70 years? All the sudden this? What's the deal? You got yourself a new egghead or something?"

One of Andras' aide whispered rather loudly… "Boss, I think we should tell him about Zal-"

WHACK.

Andras smacked the aide's mouth shut with a hard back hand. The Torturer fainted and collapsed, with blood bursting out of his broken nose, and some of his bloody teeth went flying, some barely latched to his gum, and some were hooked on Andras' fist.

Alas, the damage was done.

"Zal-?" Djibrill the senior's interest is officially piqued.

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In his mind landscape, Athrun find that he can practically materialize anything he wanted out of a whim at a speed of a thought. His limit is his imagination. And right now, he's looking at an all gray armor design, another product of his imagination.

Needless to say this new centerpiece attracted the attention of a certain high strung King. The King merely gazed at the armor with a rather bored notion. "I know what you're trying to do, boy."

"Ah, so it's 'boy' now, not mongrel?" Athrun didn't turn around and continue focusing on that armor piece. "What, I got promoted or something?"

"Watch your tone boy. I can still reconsider my judgment at the drop of a heartbeat." The King rubbed his chin menacingly. "You created this armor to be my vessel, no? Be warned, boy. I do not take lightly of being considered a sideproject."

Athrun chuckled. "Some of us can do several things at one go, king. Multitasking is one of the things I'm good at." Athrun smirked. "For instance, right now, I'm planning my way out of here, working on fixing and improving an old invention of mine, and, two things that concern you: figuring what and where you are, and also, creating this." Athrun lifted another draft of an armor design which he thought up in his head. In his mental landscape, they appear as glowing writings in thin air. But Athrun can hold them as if they were drawn on an invisible paper. "As you might be able to imagine… I'm not thinking much on the former of the last two, having already a good grasp on what and where you are… now I just need to build this."

The King growled. "And how are you so sure this armor is a worthy vessel of my splendor?"

And to that, Athrun smirked. "When I was a Forge Corps Legionnaire, I designed a Blast Shield for them which became their standard armor piece. But… before the shield… I designed something else more radical. The Blast shield was just… a fraction of that invention. A byproduct… if you wish to call it so. This… This armor… is the true whole idea." Athrun stopped working on his armor as he reminisced about his old work. "I… won't bore you into the details yet, but… technically, it's a suit that allowed the user to fight with the strength of a battalion. What do you think?"

"I have the strength of an entire KINGDOM in me!" The King declared proudly as he raised his hands. "Do I look impressed, boy?"

Seeing the King's armored blank faceplate, Athrun honestly had no idea. "Well, when I said a battalion, that only apply, on the theoretical level, to normal humans… Naturals."

Which is to say if applied to Advanced enhanced capabilities, it will capable of far significant improvements. And still the King was not impressed. "Theoretical, HAH! What, is this another one of your long list of condemned invention that don't work?"

"Condemned, yes. Don't work? No. It worked great." Athrun scratched his cheek remembering the specs of this invention. "…too great, in fact."

"Too great?"

"My… 'long list of condemned invention that don't work' can roughly be divided into two." Athrun turned and looked at Kokuyou with a meaningful smile as he raised two fingers. "The first are Inventions that don't work… craptastic inventions that failed brilliantly…" one finger down. "…and the second one are invention that… that nobody, not even normal Zoan, can use."

And to that, the King, for the first time ever, rose up from his throne as he caught the meaning of that statement. "You have my attention, Zala."

Upon hearing his name, if only in part, was spoken to for the first time, Athrun smirked. "Listen well… Kokuyou."

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"What… the… so… you… WHAT?"

"I admit. At first even I couldn't figure the heads or tail of this thing. But, now, I think I understand." Athrun cracked his knuckles as he balled and un-balled his fist several times. "Kokuyou, or the Obsidian King… is a material. It took shape as liquid goo, because, technically, it really has no coherent form… until someone can give him a form that he considers… worthy."

"No, that's not what I'm asking!" Ka-chan gulped in horror at Athrun. "You go back a little bit, mister!"

"Go back? Oh, you mean the part when I explain that my triple layered armor is composed of hundreds of elastic hydraulic tubes that act as a second layer of muscles that amplify my strength several fold? Or the part where I said its outer layer is a reactive blast armor of hardened alloy plates, the same kind used by Legionnaire's Blast shield, and that it can flexibly react to extreme blows? Or the mimetic liquid metal endoskeleton on the in-between layer that can-"

"NO! NOT THAT YOU EGGHEAD!" A pale-faced Ka-chan shook Athrun's violently. "YOU GO BACK TO THAT PART WHEN YOU SAID YOU D… D… DR…"

"Dr… what? You mean that part when I told you how I drank Kokuyou to the last drop?" Athrun answered in a rather innocent tone.

"WHAT IN GOD'S NAME POSSESS you to DIGEST… something like… urk!" Ka-chan paling complexion worsened upon hearing Athrun admitted having done such horrifyingly gross act so casually.

"That's the way it works. I had to drink it. Now I'm his vessel, and I don't mind." Athrun lifted his arm and pointed at the center of his arm, specifically, he's referring to his bone. "He's inside me now. Stored and super compressed inside the hollows of my bone marrows. I can pull him in and out at will where he'll seep through the pores of my body. Here, see?" Athrun demonstrated this by showing the process of the armoring on the said arm: first, his arm changed color from skin to metallic black and purple color as Kokuyou seeped out the pores of his skin, creating a skin tight membrane. Next, metallic musculature wiring were formed out of the membrane, they braided themselves and engulfed the sheathed arm, creating an arm covered by what looked like intertwined metallic muscle strands. And then, molten metal seeped out of the seams of the muscles and encased the said arm in a bubbly cocoon of metal glob. And then finally, the metal glob outer crust shift shape into the shape of the layered gauntlet and hardened into that earlier shape Athrun showed. Athrun wriggled his fingers, showing the completed process on his arm.

"Regrettably, it's not complete yet." Athrun explained further. "I mean… he can coat my whole body like I showed you before… but he need some time to work on the insides." Athrun smiled in reassurance to calm the horrified audience.

But all he did was freak Ka-chan further out of her wits, and her panicked response was a straight punch to Athrun squarely in the face.

CLONK!

Ka-chan gasped when her fist, instead of punching a soft human face, collided with what felt like a hunk of solid metallic object. Athrun did budge in that his head was only knocked back a bit, and boy does it HURT! His nose was bent to the wrong side. But the same can be said to Ka-chan's fist. She bit her lips hard as she held herself from screaming hysterically in pain, holding her bruised fist with her other hand, jumping up and down in pain. She couldn't stop herself from dropping trickles of tears from the corner of her angry golden eyes which are glaring at Athrun, demanding explanation on what kind of freak is he.

"Uhh…" Athrun smirked nervously as he also rubbed his bruised face and fixed his bent nose with a crack. "Have I mentioned that he also coated my bones?" Which is another way of saying that Athrun's bones are now armored with a super strong super-weapon-class metallic alloy. A fortunate fact that prevented himself from being lifted off the ground and smashed into a crater on the wall by that punch.

If looks can kill, Athrun would've died a thousand times where he stood. 'SAY THAT SOONER, YOU SHITTY EGGHEAD!' Ka-chan's cheeks reddened in anger as she glared at Athrun in silent retaliation with her teary eyes.

Athrun can only laugh nervously, and likewise, Yoon also chuckled at Ka-chan's antics. Now Ka-chan angry flush turned into a blush of embarrassment. But in the end, she too joined them and chuckled at their situation, and finally, an all around full blown laugh. For the moment, they even forgot where they are.

All the sudden, noises of large amount of footsteps can be heard from the other side of the steel door.

All cheer vanished as Athrun also retracted the gauntlet back into the insides of his bones, returning his arm to a normal state. Several clanking and clicking sound of the door being unlocked from the other side and then the door opened. Djibrill the Senior waltzed in, take a look at the occupants of the said room, particularly to Athrun.

"When I heard from Andras of what had fallen to his lap… I couldn't believe my ears. I had to come here to see with my own eyes." Djibrill grinned like mad. He stretched out both of his chubby arms to the side, in a gesture of grand welcome for the guest of honor. "The wonder boy himself."

"And… you are?"

"Oh, where are my manners? I'm Djibrill, of the Alli-"

"Lord Djibrill, of Logos foundation." Athrun snapped. "Head of the house of Djibrill."

The fat man's smile faltered slightly, but then it quickly returned and even intensified. "You knew me?" In fact, he seems to become even more joyful. "What honor."

A stark contrast with Athrun's suddenly glooming mood. "By reputation." He added with an angry tone. "And none of them are pleasant, I assure you."

"Now, now, now." Djibrill clapped his flubby fingers giddily. "Let's not make our introduction get off on the wrong foot." Djibrill descended the stairs and stood on ground level. That's when everyone noticed something: the guy's fat… and he's even shorter than Athrun, barely reaching his upper chest! Ka-chan and Yoon closed their mouth with their hand, muffling a quiet but audible laughter.

Andras gasped knowing full well the reason for her glee. "Young lady, you better stop before-"

The sound of gun cocking was the only warning.

BANG

The bullet zoomed past the thin air where Ka-chan's head used to be, and it only scraped her shoulder. Ka-chan gritted her teeth and glared at the shooter, one of Djibrill's elite guard. But the said sergeant wasn't intimidated by the least, a sign of veterancy. He merely tightened his aim at the blonde girl. "WHY YOU…!"

She tried to rush in there and give the guy a piece of her mind but it was then she noticed Athrun was firmly holding on to her shoulder. The girl looked at the boy and saw Athrun shook his head. Ka-chan still won't let it go, and the other 15 elite guard in the room ready themselves. But then, another firm grip from an elderly hand stopped her from going even more berserk. It was Sgt. Andras. "Knock it off girl. Right now your life is worth less than the chubby guy." He whispered. "They've been ordered to ensure his safety no matter what. Even if that means killing you."

"But I-"

"They're veterans shoot to kill type. When they aim, they aim to kill."

"Aim to kill! Hah! I'm still-"

"You owe your life to that guy." Andras pointed to Athrun.

Ka-chan looked saw Athrun's hand gripped her shoulder tightly. That's when she also realized that back when the shot was fired, she did get the feeling of being pulled away to another side involuntarily. Ka-chan blinked in realization.

"If Zala didn't yank you to another side, you'd have another hole to breathe of on your forehead." The old sergeant glared sternly at Ka-chan. "So behave."

Ka-chan stopped struggling and finally let go. But it was clear she's still as pissed as hell.

Djibrill ignored it all and turned towards Sgt. Andras. "If it's not too much trouble, perhaps we can continue the feast here? I would like to entertain our guest."

"No can do, sir." Andras sternly refused. "Zala here is a zoan. We've been putting him under a strict controlled diet. We cannot risk him gaining enough strength to escape."

"Hm? Then what are your guns and weapons for, hm? Bring the banquet here at once!"

And so the lavish banquet long table was brought down to the said dungeon, with Athrun being given the seat of honor of sitting right across Djibrill's chair. At least a baker troopers were positioned around him, all pointing their guns at Athrun's head, ready to blow him up at the moment's notice. The waiters continue to serve food to Djibrill the senior, and now, under Djibrill's order, they also serve some food to Athrun as well… though they do so with clattering fingers, more scared of the situation of serving a prisoner under the threat of so many guns.

Ka-chan and Yoon can only watch helplessly from the sideline, not being allowed to partake in the feast – not that they would've want to, under the circumstances. Sgt. Andras remained standing together with his two aides, eying every move Athrun made… though the said person didn't move much, not even to touch the extravagant food before him. Even its heavenly smell can't faze him to do otherwise.

"Ah, allow me to introduce you to my son, Djibrill the Junior." Djibrill Sr. pointed a half gnarled chicken leg to the younger man next to him. Djibrill Jr. merely grinned as he glanced at Athrun while he continued to caress the cat in his hand. Athrun merely shrugged. "I've seen your work in the lab. A most impressive work. A farcry different than anything our so called finest in the world scientist ever made." Djibrill Sr. saluted the young inventor at the other end of the table by raising his wineglass.

"Right back at you." Athrun muttered back in blatant sarcasm. "Nice work cannibalizing a lot of my invention to improve yours."

"Please, I'm a great admirer of your work." In contrast, Djibrill take no offense in that comment. "In fact, if I may say so myself, you are a credit to your race." The fat man continued to munch his food as he continued to explain. "You are a Zoan, yes? The battle history of zoans had always been one synonymous with barbarism, brutality, gluttony, and… and cannibalism and… and… yeesh… I can go on forever!" Djibrill made a disgusted voice, but he then pointed at Athrun with his half eaten sausage stuck on a fork. "But you… you make use of your monstrous heritage… turn it into a massive productive force that benefit the progress of humanity! My God, aren't you an exemplary living being or what?"

"If the idea is to flatter me over the unwilling advancement I've intentionally contributed to your weapons' R&D I assure you, I'm NOT flattered!"

"Oh, no Mr. Zala! That's where you had me wrong!" Djibrill smiled kindly. "I'm merely giving you credit from one human to another. Forget the Natural Advanced racial differences, those are moot, boy! We're talking about making this world a better world!" Djibrill spiritedly lifted both of his hands to the sky.

"And how did weapons of murder can make this world a better world!?" Ka-chan suddenly interjected.

Djibrill was a bit taken back by this sudden outburst from the outsider. He gazed at Ka-chan and then to Andras, asking explanation.

"She's… well, she's Zala's personal bounce-I mean-bodyguard. Real tough bitch." Andras explained short. "She's from Orb, and so is the Korean next to her."

Djibrill snorted at the notion 'tough'. "Well, that's but a naïve statement. One that I strongly believe mr. Zala here will not utter."

"Eh?" Ka-chan blinked in confusion.

"Since the dawn of history, mankind has been faced with various kinds of conflict and limitations. When they feel cold, they invent clothes. When they want to travel across the ocean, they build boats… conflict and limitation." Djibrill for the first time, stopped eating. "Do you know what is the first advanced weaponry ever made by men?"

Ka-chan twitched in confusion.

"Bows and Arrows." Djibrill swished his fork. "They were once the mainstay weapon of every civilization that called themselves 'modern'." The Fat man chortled. "But before they were weapons, they were tools for hunting. Alongside with spears and knives, and, yes, even swords. But, at some point, they were also the pinnacle of weapons technology. Unless I'm mistaken, Genghis Khan, an ancient Warlord of the Mongolian empire used just that to conquer the known world… and he would've succeeded too… that is until the intervention of the Samurais."

"What are you getting at?"

"Humanity's advancement cannot be separated from weapons. The various things that you refer today as technological enhancement, military or civil purposes; they were all based, in part or in whole, from weapons development. Civilization of humanity as a whole had progressed through weapons technology. To say weapons of murder did not contribute to the progress of humanity is but naïve ramblings."

"But-"

"Do you know how your Hellfire rockets came to be?" Athrun suddenly interjected before Ka-chan can say her point as he glared at Djibrill. "They came from a simple, and in my opinion, a rather useless invention: fireworks."

Everyone's attentions are now focused on Athrun. "First invented by the Chinese for… no reason at all. It blew up in the sky, create some pretty flashy colors and for the heck of a pyrotechnic… but beyond that… it really serve no other purposes… at the time of its first conception." Athrun chuckled. "Of course it had various other possible use and application, but as a fireworks… it's useless and a total waste of time, and yet… I like it." Athrun smiled remembering the time he was introduced to fireworks. "Seeing colors and sparks coloring up the night sky. It's beautiful. Useless, but beautiful. However…" Athrun's smile vanished as he darkly glared at Djibrill and his son. "You took that same invention and the same firecracker are now blowing up my people to bits in the battlefield."

Everyone fell deathly silent at the statement.

"Weapon technology, civilian technology, it doesn't matter what invention was build for what purpose. People use them. That's what decides whether something is good or bad for humanity." Athrun closed his darkening eyes as he rested his temple on his hand. "However, it is also a fact, a historical inevitability that humanity has a penchant of creativity of making weapons from civilian equipment… and vice versa. Venturing to an even brutal darker truth, various kinds of technological advancement are also related to weapon development. Steam engine is one example. Another is how medical sciences progress even faster in war time, when injuries and wounds needed tending of the latest medical knowledge. Development of advanced construction techniques and improvements of building materials to create stronger fortress during wartime were later applied to civilian housing, development in farming techniques in order to produce more food to provide more supplies to troops definitely has civilian use… Humanity NEEDS conflict, they need weapons in order for the society to survive and then making progress forward. A society without weapons… is a world that is doomed to total stagnancy."

"Well said!" Djibrill the Senior applauded his chubby hands loudly. "I couldn't put it more beautifully than-"

"But a world whose technologies that can be build WITHOUT weapons… is still much better." And this time Athrun smiled kindly to Ka-chan, startling her and earned Athrun a cute blush. "That's a world that people like you, me, and the rest of us weapon makers, don't deserve. No. People like YOU deserve to die… along with me."

And suddenly, everyone became incredibly tense.

"…you've been to the underground lab. I'd wager you already ordered all my work to be copied down to the last detail in the hopes that you can continue my work on your own without my help. Copy all you wish, Lord Djibrill. That blueprint is useless without the chemical formula to run it. And it's in here. In my head." Athrun grinned sinisterly as he tapped his temple. "I haven't touched your food, I'd imagine you've laced them with a slow acting addictive narcotic that will render me helplessly addicted, putting me under your mercy." Athrun chuckled at the food in front of him. "Well, as you can see, I haven't touched them… but… I don't have to, do I?" Athrun took the fork and twirled the poison laced food on his plate. "I find it odd that the food given to me has a stronger smell than the one you're eating right now… poppy flowers, I bet? I took a sniff several times… you took the time explaining a lot of things to me, in order to give time for the narcotic scent to enter my senses… and now the narcotics is already in my system." Then Athrun placed a small flask on the table filled with dark liquid. "Not anymore. I've been dripping it out of my system in the time it took for you to spout your nonsense." Athrun showed everyone his finger, one of its tip were blackened as the result of his immunity system pushed the poison out of his body. Coincidentally, it's the middle finger.

Djibrill no longer smile at this point. All his ploy has been read square one.

"Relax. I'm finishing the engine. Three days." Athrun grinned widely as he lifted three fingers. "Three days and if you like, you're welcome to watch the demonstration of the construction process."

And for a moment, Djibrill smile suddenly returned in full glow. "Excellent! I will wait to see your grand unveiling with great anticipation!"

Athrun returned Djibrill's full blown smile with one of his own relaxed grin.

Not long after that the dinner was over. Within minutes, the initially glamorous dining table was removed from the dungeon, along with all its cuisines (both the leftovers and the intact poisoned ones), leaving just Athrun, Ka-chan and Yoon.

"Well, then, mr. Zala. I shall leave you to your work, I'd look forward to your presentation in 3 days." The last thing Athrun saw before the steel door was closed was Djibrill the Senior's wide grin.

Once the door was closed, Djibrill instantly lose his steel clad mask of smile. "Damn monsters, these Advanced. Andras!"

"Yes sir?"

"Keep an eye on him. Once he finished his steam engine, lock him up and then use whatever means of torture you can think of and wring that so called formula out of him. I don't care if you had to tear him apart to pieces, I WANT that formula! Understood!?"

Sgt. Andras nodded grimly. "…perfectly sir. But…"

"But what?"

"What if he still won't talk? What if he'd rather die first before talking?"

Djibrill glared sadistically.

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Minutes after the steel door was closed had passed and still the obviously distraught Athrun stare at the blank steel door.

Ka-chan looked at the back of Athrun's head. Silence was all she gets, but then the raven haired boy made a loud exhaling sound, a sign of he just let go a breath of relief. "Egghead… you okay?"

"…I feel like I just had 10 years of my life drained off me…" Athrun gasped a breath, but he was still tense. "…of all the people I can ran into… the head of the Djibrill family…"

"Who is this… Djibrill guy?"

Athrun turned around, revealing an anxious sad smile. He was silent for a few moments, choosing his words carefully, and then he began explaining: "Djibrill family… is one of the oldest known clan that supported the Alliance. They were one of the houses that formed the Natural High Council, back during the time of the two emperors."

"I've heard Djibrill before… they were respected billionaire trader and pharmaceutical magnate. They made their fortunes in shipping and medicine, right?" Yoon raised her hand. "They used to be with the politics, but after the Collapse they cleaned up and now they're only working in economic, specifically, in trading business… or so they claimed."

"The legal part." Athrun nodded as he finally sat on the floor. So did the other listeners. "When… cadets first get trained into Knights… one of our first ABCs of combat… is who to watch out for." Athrun rubbed the collar of his prisoner attire. "There are two things they taught us to watch out for. The first…" Athrun rubbed the collar on his left. "…is what we called the Blacklist Captains. Alliance had 13 divisions, each led by a captain. Among these 13 captains, there are some with incredible prowess or terrifying capability, far surpass other captains… to the point it made one question whether they are naturals or not. The term 'Blacklist' was not a coincidence. It's our way of telling us that these guys are Hakutenkun only."

"Hakutenkun? You mean the Whities?" Ka-chan raised a hand.

Athrun nodded. "All the currently known Blacklist Captains: Ed the Reaper, Sakura Burst Rena Imelia, Moonlight Mad Dog Morgan Chevalier had, at some point, come into clash more than once with Hakutenkuns. The result had never been conclusive with neither side had ever claimed decisive victory. But every time one of these Blacklist Captains on the loose amidst normal knights of Elemental Knights and below… let's just say we'll be lucky if the casualty number reach only 2 digits. That's why we sew the pictures of these captains on our collar so that we will always remember their faces and steer clear."

The audience gulped. "Well you sure had it tough, Egghead."

Athrun chuckled appreciatively at Ka-chan's concern. Then he moved to the imaginary right collar to explain the rest. "The second one to watch out for… is a list filled with civilian names."

"Civilian?"

"They're not soldiers. They're well known businessmen and industrialist." Athrun clasped his hands. "During the Holocaust, as you might well know, the massacre of the Advanced race was perpetrated mostly by the members of the High Council who served the Blue Emperor. During the Foundation War led by George of Glenn, they became our main targets of high priority. In the Aftermath of the Collapse and the death of George of Glenn, we renewed our hunt with increased ferocity. We managed to narrow it down to several names… specifically family names. We treated these families the same way we would treat the Blacklist Captains: capture them or kill them. That's the way it was back then. We were so pissed because we lost our founder, we hunt them down, kill them all, and we exterminate them down to the last generation. That's just how angry-and crazy-we were." Athrun explained as waved his hand exasperatedly. "That and… well, we know for a fact that these families were the main driving force behind the holocaust."

"Uh-huh." Ka-chan and Yoon merely nodded.

"But… between the chaos of that time and our own shift of focus from killing and destroying to rebuilding and surviving… it didn't really do much. We tried to hunt them down, and though we did managed to wipe out many original members of the High Council, we never managed to deal a decisive blow. All in all, only 12 clans remained. But, they managed to go underground, kept themselves hidden and safe for centuries of the Cold War. The wanted list for these 12 clans still remains even now. During the collapse they went off the grid… but when the Bloody Valentine started… we JUST knew they were behind it… and with what we just saw, I'd say they're VERY much alive and actively taking part of this war."

"So that Djibrill guy was one of the 12? The Logos?"

"Ah, yes. Djibrill the Sr., head of the Djibrill clan. You've already know the legal part of their business… but… we have a list about… a few kilometers long, I think, of war crimes. And we had more than several proof that the Djibrills either ordered it, or supplied the guys who did it. My dinner with Djibrill the Sr. provides a fine example of their skills, no?"

"Drugs? They do drugs?" Ka-chan made a disgusted look.

"Their favorite MO. And they're bloody damn good at it." Athrun began listing some of the most heinous crimes he had learned. "They provide nerve gas to various concentration camps to slowly neuter the victims, they provide the poison that went into the sabotaging of the medical supplies to advanced refugee centers, provide the narcotic drug that went into grain smuggled into Zaft's farming plants, they provide the hallucinogen that poison water supply on one of our outpost in Africa, they provide this, provide that… I could go on forever. But the point is… the Logos… isn't just some family of mafia and criminals… they're a family of well respected billionaires and businessmen. They're merchants, traders… the reason they're considered civilians because they don't do war, and they do business OUT of war. They don't do the murder 'directly' but they provide it and even orchestrated some of it… but they never do it, not directly."

"And why would that stop you… stop you guys (the entire Zaft) from hunting down and put these assholes in the deepest darkest hole you can find?"

"Hooooh… I can name a few things…" Athrun chuckled darkly as he exhaled and shook his head in annoyance. "…such as the fact that we had to fight our way through just about every God damn thing the Alliance Military can throw at us. And in case you haven't noticed, we've been trying to do just THAT in the last… 72 years of this war."

Ka-chan and Yoon was somewhat bewildered.

"Djibrill family and the other members of the Logos are the principal suppliers of every single thing that the Alliance troopers are using: their weapons, the guns; big ones, small ones; the bullets, the bandages, even their socks and shoes on their feet or the pants and even the underwear. They provide the army with all the things they need. In return, the Alliance gave them sanctuary and protection. Whole personal elite armies at their beck and call who treat them like Kings."

"I thought the Five were the ruling body of the Alliance."

"Sadly, it's in name only." Athrun looked at the metallic door, as if he's still looking at Djibrill's back. "On paper, the Five controls the political side of the Alliance and Logos control the economics; which is to say that the Five should be in control of the military as well. But, in war, you need astronomical amount of funds. And that fund is something only Logos can provide. Thus how the whole army is now in their pockets." Athrun turned and gave a meaningful glance to the two listeners. "We've made either to capture or kill even one of these families a priority. If we can take down at least one important family member, it's already a big step of ending the war."

"So… what now? Change of plans?" Ka-chan nervously looked at Athrun's frowning temple, a sign that he was thinking hard.

"No. Same plan. But we have to do it with more caution seeing that we can no longer afford to fail." Athrun gritted his teeth, his eyes gleaming with determination. "And one cautionary note… get ready to fast for the next 3 days."

"EHH?" Not only Ka-chan, even Yoon was terrified.

"You've all seen what they tried to do to me. They could poison you for all they know. Your food, your drinks, anything. Do not accept anything they offer you that requires you to physically touch it. Clothes, blanket, drinks, food, anything that enters your system are all a big no. They could lace that with all sorts of drugs. In the event when you have to, be sure to wash them up first. If you can't, then make sure you don't touch it directly. Wear gloves at all times."

Ka-chan and Yoon looked at each other, imagining of how they must survive without touching anything directly for 3 days. "That would be very difficult. How can we do what we need to do without touching anything?"

"I never said this was going to be easy…" Athrun looked at his own hand and glared tensely to the ground, right towards his greatest creation 5 floors below. "Either way, we don't have much time."

0000000000000

And when Athrun returned to the underground lab, things changed greatly. The hostile aura from every scientist down there suddenly vanished. Everyone looked at him and they just gave him a mild neglect, ignoring him. Athrun can guess why.

There are about over a quadruple of armed guards down there, watching every single thing that is happening inside, every move everyone made. 20 troopers, heavily armed were stationed around Athrun's workplace. All of them, judging by the Windam Assault rifle they're carrying, all armed with a Helldart launcher on their under barrels and the dual sidearms, are Sergeants.

"Courtesy of Djibrill. They were tasked to ensure your safety and that you work undisturbed, at all cost." Sgt Andras explained easily. "He really wanted to see this work done, no matter what."

"I bet he do." Athrun get a quick check on his work station. It was neat and cleaned up, no doubt they were once being ransacked by these troopers, trying to get any glimmer on how to make this thing on their own once they've disposed of him. Tough luck for them. Athrun kept 90 percent of the machine's internal construction in his head. "Well, as long as they don't mess around with my stuff… I'm good." The stuff Athrun referring to at the moment, was a half completed mechanical panel. The panel was filled with various kinds of levers, valves, gauges, buttons, gears, pipes, etc. It almost looked like a mechanical piano, at a glance. Athrun took an especially gentle care as he checked this one.

"What's that?"

"This? This is the heart of this machine. When it start, the process is extremely, extremely dangerous. This lets me control the whole process and kept the destruction level within safety margin. It's the command and control mechanism for this whole machine, it monitors everything that's going on with it: gas pressure, steam tank, temperature, volcano drilling-"

"WHAT?" Everyone stopped dead upon listening to those words. "Did you just say…Volcano drilling? What the hell, Zala? You were talking steam and super cold temperature and then all the sudden, cracking open the volcano?" Andras glared at the boy, demanding explanation. "You didn't tell us anything about this."

"I guess I miss explaining that part. We need the gas from the volcano to complete the engine. It's about the balance of hot and cold in one container." Athrun explained. "I've worked on various kinds of other alternatives, but the best is still the earthly heat of a volcano. In fact… in my thesis to Morgenroete, I mentioned the one place which is ideal for this engine to reach maximum potential: The fiery volcanoes in Krakatau islands." Athrun gave a meaningful glance to Andras.

Andras' eyes widened upon hearing the word.

"Krakatau Island… located in Sunda Strait, between Sumatra and West Java, in Indonesia Archipelago." Athrun grinned showing his bloody teeth. "And that… is EXACTLY where we are, no? You guys got a lot of balls setting shop in the Southeast Asia territory… right in Lord Goud Veia's frontyard."

The scientists and Andras were particularly shocked. They didn't remember ever breathing a word of where they are. "Since when?"

"…geothermal energy." Athrun explained. "To construct the engine, it also require another ingredient: geothermal energy coming straight from the core of a volcano. The bigger the better. And the geothermal energy from the core of Mount Danan is perfect." Athrun tapped the ground with his foot. "I figure it out as soon as I realized the reason this place was so difficult to chill up. This base is constructed at the foot of Mt. Danan. One of the most active volcanoes in the world… but there are plenty of such volcanoes… it's something in which Indonesia are quite rich of more than any other country in the world, other than its spices, hence the reason why the weather was so hot."

Athrun then glared at the guns on the troopers. "If I were you, I'd knock down on the firearms. I said active, but in reality, we're standing on a still sleeping volcano. Agitate the volcano with enough BANG… do you know what's going to happen next?" Athrun smiled menacingly.

Upon hearing that, the sergeants paled in horror. Andras himself was already half convinced. "But, Zala… this place has been a weapon manufacturing and testing facility for some time. We've had MORE than several explosions happening here. How come the mountain hadn't blown up yet?"

"Small arms explosion and even cannon shots. The explosion was not strong enough, but I daresay, all the explosions that you guys had done in this mountain had agitated it. Made it more dangerously close to eruption with each explosion. But this thing…" Athrun pointed at his machine. "This machine of mine… its explosive power is no joke. That much disturbance will be like a final hammer blow. That is, IF even a smallest thing went wrong. That's why I had to do it myself. I'm the only one who can control this machine and kept it within safety levels so it will not kill us all."

Andras make sure he commits that to memory, swallowing a gulp as he did.

"All things considered, I don't mind with the extra guards. You guys might actually be useful. But, if you're gonna stick your neck around in the danger territory… do so at your own risk." Athrun get to work immediately. His condition had indeed improved unlike before where he could barely walk. And then, they began working, first, as agreed, he handed everyone gloves. And then he moved to a covering and with a swipe he removed the cover revealing, to the shock of everyone, a large drill bit. It's quite massive and towering, almost a quarter as tall as the already gigantic Steam Engine-Maker machine.

Upon the grand unveiling of the said contraption, Ka-chan notably blinked in awe, with glimmers in her eyes.

"A drill!? How and when the devil did you make this?" Andras gaoped.

"Some of us can do a few things all at once." Athrun smirked, ignoring the dumbfounded spectators. "This is a drill I specially made for the sole purpose of drilling safely to the volcano core and then extract the geothermal gas from the magma. Ka-chan, will you be so kind and get this drill on standby?"

Ka-chan looked as if she's still pissed that he hid something from her again, but, she did owe him one… that and the thought of drilling into the earth's core… for a moment, Ka-chan forget the danger, and pay attention to the excitement of the coolness of the concept. Grunting, she took the giant drill and lifted it over her head easily, to the bewilderment to those who had not witnessed just how prodigiously strong the girl can be.

"Where?"

"X mark the spot." Athrun tapped the X mark on the ground. "Unlike the steam part from the stalactite we really don't need that much geothermal gas. Just one hole would suffice. Now, place the drill on the X mark and do it gent-" Athrun winced when Ka-chan, in her excitement, suddenly slammed the drill into the X spot violently. So violent in fact that half of the drill went inside the ground in an instant… followed by an unnerving rumbling and the fact that suddenly the supposedly cold room had its temperature rose up by a few degrees…

Everyone looked in horror towards Ka-chan. The blond girl noted ever so innocently. "What?"

"Ka-chan…san…" Athrun swallowed a gulp. "Don't… do… that…!"

"Huh?" Ka-chan blinked obliviously. "But you said we need to drill. That means this thing had to go in right? That's why I'm bang-" Ka-chan swing her fist again, intending to bang the drill, that was when Athrun, and about a baker troopers lunged forward and stopped the girl by holding for their lives on her suspended fist, preventing it from putting another bang on what could possibly be their coffin nail.

Ka-chan looked in oblivious confusion at the mass of people. Athrun sweat dropped. "There, look. There's a crank, right?" Athrun pointed at the crank attached to the said drill. "Spin that, and the drill will start digging-slowly. I KNOW we're on top of a volcano, that's why we have to be careful!"

"…slowly, huh?" Ka-chan looked at the crank… Now she understands. So… they had to crank their way in. Seeing the girl get the point everyone let go. But they looked like they just got a few years of their life taken away from them.

Athrun gave a brief explanation. "We're going to slowly drill until we reach the gas mother lode from the volcano's core and then combine it into that sphere." Athrun momentarily glared at Ka-chan with a smile: "I repeat: slowly." Ka-chan nodded and so she grabbed the crank and start spinning it. The drill also began to spin and dig, slowly… slowly… very slowly… before she knew it Ka-chan found herself became deeply immersed with this activity of spinning the crank and drilling. And then, she excitedly spin faster, and spin, and spin, spin, spin, spin, spinspinspin spi-

"KA-CHAN!"

Ka-chan jerked in surprise upon hearing the ceremonious scream. It was from the panicking and greatly distressed Athrun and Yoon. Athrun in particular hissed: "What. Did. I. Tell. you?"

Ka-chan blinked innocently several times, then she looked at her handiwork, and then she remembered one important detail: SLOWLY with capital letters, bolded, underlined and italicized! "Right. Slowly. I got you."

"H… How deep do you need to dig?" Andras gulped.

"Judging by how deep you guys have gone? About 2 to 300 feet until we hit the gas pocket mother lode." Athrun gulped. "And we'll be digging… 10-15 hours a day… maybe 20… depending on speed. If we dig too fast, the friction between the drill and rocks will ignite the gas pockets… We have to do it VERY slowly. That's what the last three days for."

"Urm… What happened… if the gas pockets explode?" one of Andras' aide asked nervously.

"Does barbeque ring any bell?" Andras answered the pale white aides. "Three days? 300 feet?"

"Ka-chan! SLOWLY! You're about to bre-"

CRACK!

Everyone gasped upon hearing that unnerving sound and Athrun cold sweated. Yoon clasped her mouth in horror as she looked at her blonde friend. Ka-chan BROKE the crank. And to think, it's barely 5 minutes since they began drilling.

"…and that girl at the helm…?" Andras swallowed a loud gulp. "Can't you have someone else with vastly gentler disposition to do it?"

"It may not look like it, but that crank is REALLY heavy. Back then I need to do it myself, but… now…" Athrun had yet to recover enough to use his full strength. "Relax… it's only three days. Heh, he…"

CRACK! Ka-chan broke another crank. The girl's face reddened in anger. Athrun in panic quickly get in there and fixed the crank again.

"God help us all." Andras sweat dropped.

"We're all gonna die…" The Aides spoke what's in everyone's mind.

0000000000000

Day 1…

As soon as Athrun fixed the crank, the drilling recommence while Athrun put the finishing touches on the Stalactite engines. The finishing touches include the boy sitting at 50 feet off the ground on a hammock with a safety line on his belt, drawing; carving what appear to be magical runic circles on the insides of the converted boilers. In the mean time, Yoon and Ka-chan were responsible with the drilling. It may look easy, but still…

GRR… GRR… GRR-CRAK!

Ka-chan stop spinning the crank upon hearing that sound. Athrun also heard it and redirect his attention away from his current work to see what Ka-chan broke now. "What?"

"Zala-san… I think you better come down and take a look at this!" Yoon waved her hand to Athrun, calling him down.

Athrun conceded and went down. Meanwhile, Ka-chan grunted and she slowly plucked the drill out of the ground and then lo and behold, the drill head broke. Ka-chan gulped and quickly defended herself: "NOT my fault! I don't know what happened! I swear! I drill just like you told me!"

And Yoon quickly apologize profusely. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I should've stopped her! I'm sorry, I'm sorry…!"

"Relax. It's not your fault." Athrun plucked a pebble from the broken drill. He narrowed his eyes and pointed the pebble across the light. "Ferrite."

"Excuse me?"

"Iron." Athrun concluded. "I think we just hit into an iron plate."

"Iron plate? Here?" Ka-chan blinked.

"Not surprising." Sgt. Andras joined the explanation. "Krakatau island used to be rich in iron. Plus, we're near a volcano."

"Magma is a hodgepodge of various kinds of minerals. It's not surprising that there will be iron here." Athrun continue to observe the iron ore in his hand.

"We met similar problems when we build this place. This used to be a small mining operation after all. We left it after we mined it all out. Guess there ought to be leftover scraps of it. In any rate, I don't think the iron plate will be thicker than 50 feet." Sgt Andras assured the diggers.

"I'll hold your word to that. Cause if it's thicker than that, we're screwed." Athrun peeked into that hole. "And we barely penetrated 10 feet. This is gonna take a while…" Athrun pulled out a chalk and drew a transmutation circle on the broken drill. He clapped his hands and jolts of electricity lit up, the iron ore disintegrate, and then the lightening jumped between the drill and the iron plate down in that hole. Particles of the iron ore broken down and then reformed into the broken drill. Moments later, the drill had been fixed, even improved. "Okay. Continue."

And then, lunchtime, the troopers brought some food to the three diggers. The food were notably were of better quality than one would hand over to prisoners. "Compliments of Lord Djibrill." The Servant explained.

But Ka-chan and Yoon, remembering what Athrun said, didn't touch a crumb or even smell a whiff and they simply ignore it as they continue to work. Athrun saw this and nodded in satisfaction. And so the three prisoners continue their work, leaving the food untouched much to everyone's, bar a chuckling and understanding Andras, confusion.

And yet, despite Ka-chan's best efforts, they keep hitting pebbles of iron ores, they blew up 3 more drill heads, and in her frustration, Ka-chan broke about a dozen cranks. Athrun had to leave his duty up above time and again to fix and improve the drill again and again. Also, a section of their workshop had gradually transformed into what appears to be a makeshift chemical lab, courtesy to the same egghead.

With that said, Athrun began spending more time in that lab, brewing god knows what. The thing is, the manner of which Athrun brewed the said chemical substance was far from refined. The boy tossing liquid or whatever into a large, drum shaped, and lead lined hole which act as a very large cauldron; made with Athrun's alchemy. And problem is, he tossed them in a haphazardly unquantifiable amount: sometimes he toss in but a few drops, sometimes he dropped them in by the barrels – in some case he even toss whatever chemical he made along with the casing!

Athrun had no doubt that the troopers were told to make note of whatever kind of ingredients he put into this substance, but Athrun had no intention of making it easy for them. Some of the ingredients he asked did came from that list he gave to the Head Warden, but he made the crucial parts himself, courtesy to his alchemy. And these chemical substances are something the Sgt. can never make out unless they're also a chemist of Athrun's caliber.

One thing for sure: he brewed a large amount of it.

Hence, despite the setbacks, they've managed to score 107 feet.

Day 2…

Athrun noted that today's work continue to progress far smoothly. So smooth in fact, that some of the scientist who were initially skeptical of Athrun's work had their interest piqued, and they start to wonder if the boy can really make it. Ka-chan's drilling had reached a steady pace, and she rarely hit any other unwanted obstacles.

Athrun don't mind, but he kept them on a close overwatch. In the mean time, Athrun had just finished the control panel. Climbing up, he began putting the panel together in a prepared platform. He was just about done when the sound of the drilling began to get mixed with some weird sounds…

And that sound naturally reached Athrun's ears. In panic he quickly yelled down. "Ka-chan! Stop drilling!"

"Drill, Drill… what?" But somehow Ka-chan didn't catch the last part and continue drilling. All the sudden, the ground rumbled as the ground around the drill cracked. Athrun knew right away what it was.

"Ka-chan! Yoon! RUN!" Athrun screamed. And this time, Ka-chan heard and she left her post on the double. Yoon also ran, but she stumbled midway and the ground rumbled even louder. Ka-chan turned back and grabbed the fallen girl by the noose and dragged her up along with her. Seconds later, with a burst, the drill sank slightly as the hole cracked open, and then it was shot up to the sky with a strong spurt of gas burst out. The drill were propelled with such a force, it punched the platform, right next to Athrun.

The boy was thrown off the railings and plummeted down. Luckily his safety rope holds and Athrun was stopped midair with a violent yank from the said rope. But he's still in a violent full swing because of it and the falling boy was accidentally smashed into one of the steel pipes with a bang. It didn't knock him out but the steel pipe was dent with an imprint of Athrun's face on it.

A while later…

Athrun looked at the hole where the gas just shot out. It no longer came out. "That was just a small gas pocket. But we are getting close." Athrun nodded in satisfaction, ignoring the large bruise on his head. Meanwhile, the drill that was stuck on the ceiling had been plucked down. It took 5 troopers lifting the damaged drill with both of their hands to carry it all the way there. With a flash of alchemy, Athrun swiftly fixed the drill, and then he supervised the troopers to put the drill back into the hole. They do so quickly and in a wisely gentler fashion than Ka-chan brutal instant injection method.

Athrun turned to Ka-chan and Yoon. "We're nearing completion. Put the spheres into place."

Yoon nodded. Athrun then turned to Ka-chan, who looked uncharacteristically down. "Ka-chan?"

"S…y."

"What?"

"I'm… sorry." Ka-chan bowed down her head as low as possible. "I'm really sorry. I messed up."

Athrun blinked in slight surprise, but then he smiled. "Hey, it's okay. This sort of things comes with the territory!"

"Twice."

"Sorry?"

"That's twice now you saved my life. And that's twice I nearly killed you too." Ka-chan rose up her head. Her golden eyes were on the verge of tears. She managed to hold it back, but it was obvious she was full of remorse and self loathing. "I… I've been nothing but trouble… I'm so… so… sorry."

Athrun flabbergasted. He didn't expect such tough girl can actually crack like that in front of him. "He, hey! I've done worse injuries to myself. I told you. This sort of thing happens all the time. I would've been confused if nothing happened." Athrun clapped Ka-chan's shoulder to reassure her. "Now come on. Let's get back to work, shall we?"

"Before that…" Ka-chan suddenly brought something up. It's a first aid kit. "Let me do something about that bruise on your head."

"It's but a flesh wound-"

"NO IT'S NOT! Let me do this! I don't want to keep owing you!" Ka-chan ended all discussion and swiftly tend to Athrun's injured head. Despite her brashness, Ka-chan turned out to be quite handy in applying bandages and some ointment on Athrun's head. When she's finished, Athrun's head was neatly bandaged.

Athrun chuckled. "Not bad."

"Heh. I've been trained in survival and first aid kit. This sort of thing is easy!" Ka-chan grinned widely. "But… I'm surprised your body didn't heal that wound quickly. I thought you zoans were supposed to have high regenerative powers. You're okay?"

Athrun sighed as he understood why his body is slow to heal. "My body needed quite a bit of a nourishment. Without it, it'll start to malfunction and things will turn slow or stop working altogether." And yesterday, he didn't eat or drink anything. Now Athrun can only go by willpower alone. "Symptoms sometimes include decreased regeneration speed."

As if on cue, the waiters returned again with their food. "Compliments from Lo-"

"They never give up do they?" Ka-chan looked at Athrun and fro. Both smiled to each other and turn around, Athrun shook his head as he walked away, completely ignoring the food.

The waiters looked at each other, not understanding the situation one bit.

Ka-chan momentarily glanced at the poisonous food and then to Athrun. "But you know… Yoon and I definitely can't eat those foods, but… I think you can eat them. I recall you were poisoned but then you managed to kick the poison out of your system."

"These guys are pros. I'm not the first zoan they've tried to poison. They've already developed all kinds of drugs and muck that can mess even a Zoan's insides. I survived the first attempt because they've underestimated my constitution, and even that were just from the fumes. But the next time, they might… I don't know, double the dosage, use different kind of drug… whatever the case, I'm not sure I can stomach that. Not when my condition is far from prime."

"These Djibrills were THAT bad?"

"This is what they often do to POWs. They fed em properly. But the food was laced with slow acting poison that require constant intake to keep the deadly effects at bay. If they were denied the poison after one intake, they'll suffer long periods of horrifying agony until they're given another dose. And if they don't take the food, they'll die of starvation. That was preferable though." Athrun explained. "During prisoner exchange, a day before the actual exchange they unknowingly poisoned the prisoner and after the exchange, the prisoner had less than a week or two to live."

"Drugs. Poison. Narcotics. Now I get it why our harbor guards include taste checkers that are specially immunized medic nins…" Ka-chan gulped.

"I know. My fia… friend… is also a medic nin. She had also been immunized to the point she's practically immune to all forms of poison and drugs. I imagine it was the same for your poison checkers." Of course, Athrun also remembered the unfortunate side effects that left his pink haired ex-fiancé an untouchable walking bio hazard ground zero. "Poisoning supplies to a city to force their cooperation is not unheard of. But with that practice, Orb can keep the Alliance from sinking their claw into their land in any way."

"Well, unfortunately, I haven't completed my immunization yet. And neither did Yoon, obviously." Ka-chan frowned at Athrun. On the outside, Athrun put a stern smiling face. But on the inside… "This is killing you, isn't it? The autophagy… your body is…"

"I haven't get there. Don't worry. They had to do far worse to push me down that path." Athrun smiled kindly in reassurance to Ka-chan. "Persevere, Ka-chan. We'll soon be done." Athrun led Ka-chan to a rack, covered by a blanket. Ka-chan understood Athrun wished to show something on that rack.

Athrun removed the blanket, revealing a set of… suits.

"Egghead, you really can do several things at once eh?" Ka-chan whistled in awe. "What's this?"

"Blast suits." Athrun explained short. "Ones you're going to wear tomorrow."

"I thought you said we won't be anywhere near ground zero."

"THAT was before that Djibrill showed up." Athrun looked at Ka-chan with concern. "But at this point any idiot would know I was up to something. Tomorrow, it's freedom or bust. Djibrill, somebody, anybody… will get desperate. At that time, we had to stick together. We mustn't allow him to get any leverage on either of us." Athrun turned to Ka-chan and grab hold of both of her shoulders, looking at her straight in eye to make his point. "He will try something. Maybe poison you, drugged you… whatever. I can't allow that to happen."

"Egg…head?" Ka-chan blushed slightly upon seeing Athrun's face to face.

"We're all gonna get out of here alive. I'll make sure of it!" Athrun declared in determination.

Ka-chan also smiled warmly and nodded in agreement, but then she noted that there are only two blast suits. "There's only two. Where's yours?"

"Don't need it." Athrun flexed his fingers to remind Ka-chan that he already have his angle covered. "Let's get back to work. We got a big day tomorrow."

"Righto." Ka-chan singsongly agreed.

Skipping dinner, they managed to score 232 feet.

Day 3

Lord Djibrill began to lose his composure. When Athrun delivered his three day delivery date with such certainty, any idiot would know that he had planned something. Worse, they've also given him the resources to finish whatever he's making. The only reason Djibrill dared to play this dangerous game is that because the gain was well worth the risk, and he thought that he can easily gain leverage against this boy. Today, he stood corrected.

"Again? He didn't eat anything? Not even a bite, or a sniff?" Djibrill quickly hounded the waiter who walked out of the door carrying the still intact breakfast on the tray.

"They completely ignored us. Forget a sniff; they didn't even bat an eye at it." The Waiter explained. Following behind him, a waiter is being carried on a stretcher, groaning and croaking in pain, holding on to his groin, muttering gibberish in sheer pure agony.

Djibrill blinked. "What happened to him?"

"He offered them some blanket, like you told us to. They refuse."

"FORCE THEM to accept! Tell them we ins-"

"We told them that… and Zala told the blond girl to kick us off the premises."

"THAT'S NOT A GIRL!" The delirious waiter squealed. "That's a HORSE! A NUT CRACKER! Glb… grubl…" The trooper carried the poor waiter to the medical ward. "Prepare the doctors for surgery. I think she kicked one of his balls off to the other side of his cheek…"

The frustrated Djibrill looked to the still calm Head Warden Andras. "I didn't expect they could last this long. The girl and the engineer I couldn't care less… but you told me Athrun Zala was a special zoan! One who need more food than normal!"

"But he's also an Iron Knight. An Elemental Soldier. He's a high ranking field commander of the Zaft forces." Andras crossed his arm solemnly. "The voracious nature of his bloodline limit had long since been tampered with discipline and self control. You can't be this naïve thinking that he'll just let hunger overwhelm his better judgment, do you?"

"Then we need to gain a different leverage…" Djibrill rubbed his thick fingers on his flabby chin. "Yes… that Korean girl. They protect her, yes?"

"With the ferocity of a blood hound and a mother tigress, if I might add." The Head Warden lighted his cigarette coolly. "And don't think I haven't tried to do it while they're sleeping. They never leave each other out of sight. Zala and the girl took turns watching their perimeter while the other slept. And as you can see, even when starved, they're still abominably powerful."

"If we can't get to the person, what about-"

"That Zala boy is an Alchemist from the Magia Colegia. He won't need our equipment; he'll just transmute whatever the equipment or parts he needed: baker glass, test tubes, larger than life pot, gears, gauges, pipes… whatever he needs, he had ample raw material down there without needing our resources."

"And it never crossed your mind to separate the three!? Take one for hostage!?"

"No can do." Andras took a whiff of his cigar and blow out the smoke. "The three were integral to the project. Zala is at the center of it, that Ka-chan girl may not be too bright but she's a good assistant, and the Korean girl engineer provided more help than she would care to admit. Lose one, the project will stop to a grinding halt. Besides…" Andras pointed his cigarette rather mockingly at Djibrill. "Isn't it a bit late for you to be worrying about it NOW? Zala'll finish his work today, and he'll begin demonstration soon. This is why he set up his delivery date so fast. He did it so that you don't have time to do anything funny to his being with your… uhh… expertise." And Andras couldn't help but to let loose one gloating smirk behind the fat man's back. "Anyway, the boy's working and so far he delivered. I suggest, you get yourself one floor above on the observation booth. Zala had warned me the final process is quite… explosive, 'kay?"

The Head Warden pushed the steel door open, and in an instant, his breath turned to steam before his face. Whatever Athrun did, he managed to lower the temperature of that room to a chilling degree, up to the point it felt like a freezer in there. Quite impressive, considering the fact that Indonesia is in the equator line, hence the hot climate. As a direct result of that, many scientist moved away from the premises, partly because they can't stand the cold and partly because they were also wary of just what sort of nutjob creation that the Zala boy will create. All things considered though, Andras had ordered the lab to be evacuated yesterday, leaving just Athrun, his assistants, and a bunch of troopers in thick warm suits for cold temperature to assist the three scientist (2 engineer, 1 brawler) anyway they can. Then again, it doesn't seem to be much help as he can still see some of them shivering.

What's more, he couldn't find Ka-chan or Yoon… but in their place he saw two figures wearing enormously heavy and bulky suit. He understood immediately that the remaining two characters are inside the suit, which was clearly meant for protection in such a hostile territory. It is therefore an oddity that Athrun, the supposed brain of the operation, the most important person of the job-as Andras so declared himself- wear no such protection. Apparently he doesn't seem to need it, seeing that he's barely shaking. The Head Warden also didn't shiver though. Being a veteran had made him accustomed to such extreme climate. The same can't be said to his trembling head to toe aides though…

"We're hitting 265 feet. If my calculations are correct, we'll soon hit the mother lode." Athrun nodded as he observe the progress of the drilling, operated by Ka-chan. Athrun left the drilling and had prepared a set of large glass capsules, filled with ominous blue fluid. The chemical he had been making during his time on the chemical lab. Athrun and Yoon briefly talked about the said capsules and then without further ado, he climbed up to the middle section of his towering massive engine. The said section had multiple empty slots on its bulging section, something were supposed to be placed into those slots. "I'm ready!"

Yoon nodded and placed the capsules, that something, very gently on a crane. "A-a-a-alright! L-l-l-lift it up!" Yoon instructed with clattering teeth behind her thick suit. The troopers, equally chilled to the bone, with clattering fingers grabbed the rope and slowly pulled it, lifting the crane, and the capsules containing those glowing chemical, up.

"Yosh!" Soon, the glass containers were nested right next to Athrun. The boy took it and one by one he inserted the tubes into the respective slots. Down below, Yoon instructed the troopers to began connecting a series of hoses from drill into the three chambers where the sphere had been positioned. Now, in addition to the tree like branching metallic pipes stretching high above to the ceiling, the ground is also littered with a network of hoses all connected to the drill that is still being managed by Ka-chan.

As soon as Athrun inserted the final tube into the slot, he slides down by the rope to check the progress. Everything has been mostly completed, and so Athrun run a final checkup, making sure everything's ready. The boy in particular, checked the sphere chamber, particularly the one he's about to sabotage.

During that time, Andras approached Athrun from his back and then he whispered quietly. "I know what you're trying to do Zala boy."

Athrun's heart skipped a beat. In a controlled discipline, he managed to keep his surprise well hidden, his tone remained calm and steady. "What do you mean?"

"I'm not a techie. But in my experience, I've never saw someone who gave in that easily. Especially an advanced." Andras tried to take a heave of his cigarette, but it was no use. The room's temperature had frozen even the cigarette. Andras grunted and spit the cigar away. "20 years, I've… locked down and break down my prisoners. You know what I've learned? An Advanced prisoner… will never give up trying to escape. No matter how you break them, you could never sap their will away."

"I think that holds true to naturals as well."

"There's a difference." Andras crossed his arms. "You can truly render a Natural completely helpless. You remove everything, their weapons, their capacity to fight back, and you kept them like that for some time, and a natural will break eventually. But an Advanced… you strip them naked, and they still have their bloodline limit. You can never render an Advanced truly powerless."

"That's not true." Athrun rose up and turn around, facing Andras. "You're giving our Oni heritage too much credit. Strip us of everything and we're still as human as you. As vulnerable as you. We can still die, we can still starve… you of all people, should know."

"I do. And herein I saw the threat in you." Andras pointed a finger to Athrun. "You don't think much of your bloodline limit. Which means your bloodline limit is not your usual trump card. Your ability… your true game lies in something else. Your mind, clearly. But it's precisely because you didn't take your bloodline limit into account, you can think of other ways, all sorts of ideas that do not involve the use of your bloodline limit. When an Advanced had already entered that sort of mindset… it won't make sense even if I starve you to prevent you from using your bloodline limit, because it will not limit your capacity to fight much."

Athrun narrowed his eyes. Silence reigned between the young and elderly for some time. For the moment, Athrun thought the Head Warden would just call in the troopers and do him in. But then, minutes pass and nothing happen. Then Athrun break the silence. "If you know just how dangerous I can be… why don't you do away with me, first chance you get?"

Andras didn't answer that. He kept looking at Athrun in the eye. And then his mouth spoke.

Athrun heard every word, and his eyes widened in shock.

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On the significantly warmer observation booth…

Djibrill sat on a small table, with more lavish food prepared on it, just in front of the window overlooking the underground lab, giving him a perfect view of the situation below.

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"So… how long will it be?"

Athrun looked at ka-chan. "Not long now. Get the men out. We're starting as soon as Ka-chan reached the mother lode."

Andras nodded and then he signaled the troopers. "Men! Finish up! We're leaving!"

The troopers looked at Andras and nodded. They too will be all too happy leaving this freezer. One by one they left, with Sgt. Andras being the last to leave and then he sealed the door shut.

Athrun approached Ka-chan. "What were you guys talking about back there?"

"Nothing." Athrun shook his head. "How are we proceeding?"

"286 feet… and digging." Ka-chan reported. "I have to ask though… why build three when you only need one to blow up?" Seeing no troopers around, Ka-chan doesn't feel the need to hide things anymore.

"One will blow up… one, I'll take for myself… one, I'll give it to Orb. To you and Yoon." Athrun tapped Ka-chan's shoulder.

"Me?"

"Yes. You. Hand it over to Erica Simmons. The Headmistress of the Morgenroete First Academy in Japan. Just to be sure."

"Just to be sure?"

"Naturally, I would've liked to present my greatest life's work to my people, and my people only. But… I just realized I can't trust them fully with it. Not yet anyway." Athrun looked at his greatest fruit of his labor on the chambers. "This thing is an unimaginably powerful raw energy. An energy that can be used for great or terrible things. It's a Pandora's box. It can not only change the war, it will change the world. Whomsoever held control of this device have the ultimate power in the world. On that account, the balance of evil must also be created. If my people misuse this invention, then a second exact same energy must exist in order to stop it. I cannot give it to Logos or the Alliance, naturally. So I'm giving it to Orb."

"So that's Deterrence principle… huh?" Ka-chan looked at Athrun smiling face. Suddenly her suspicion was aroused. "Egghead-"

Whatever Ka-chan wished to say were cut when the drill let loose weird hissing sounds. Every eye turned to that drill. It's trembling uncontrollably and it worsened at a rapid rate, coupled with a hissing sound that grew louder by the second. Spurts of gas began to appear from the cracks and seams around the drill.

"This is it… THIS IS IT! EVERYONE GET READY! We've reached the volcano core!" Athrun drew a transmutation circle on the drill, clapped his hand and transmuted a massive fortification that nailed the drill shut. As soon as that was done, he quickly rushed to the top of the contraption. "Ka-chan! Protect Yoon at all cost!"

"That goes without saying…!" Ka-chan quickly ran towards her friend, who's currently fastening the pipes that are connecting the drill to the chamber.

"The pipes are connected!" Yoon yelled just as the sound of rumbling gets louder and louder.

Soon, Athrun stood on the platform of the great machine right in front of the domes at the top of the engine. He took a few deep breath of the freezing air, clapped his hands and then slammed it on the multitude of runic transmutation circles he had carved on the domes. The runic circles lit up with red electricity as the transmutation process begin in the earnest. The stalactites inside the domes were transmuted into liquid, the pure mineral water they contain were extracted into droplets of water. This process would've taken months, but with Athrun's alchemical transmutation, the droplets were coming out rapidly. Rune figures appeared all over the giant towering machines. The entire contraptions had become a part of Athrun's transmutation circle.

The whole underground lab was lit up in bright red light, leaving the audience in the observation booth breathlessly at awe. Djibrill senior left his big chunk of steak hanging at the edge of his fork while his mouth hung open. His son dropped the cat from his lap and continued to witness the event. Andras was about to light his cigarette, but when it start, he even forgot to light his match. All eyes in the booth are witnessing a mixture of alchemical magic and science unraveling before their very eyes.

Electricity coruscated and jump across the room as the transmutation process commence, conducted by Athrun from high above. 'Super condensed steam from distilled pure mineral water, condensed and stored at super low temperature, put inside the compartment of the sphere. And then, the geothermal gas of a volcano core stored in separate compartment inside the sphere. A balance of hot and cold inside one sphere… once unleashed, the combined two elements will explosively react with the chemical catalyst, producing an exorbitant amount of reactive force. Kira… this is… the fruit of my…' For a moment, Athrun remembered the true reason he survived the catastrophic failure of the first prototype. 'No. Kira, this is the fruit of your sacrifice that day. I won't let it go to waste!' With that in mind, Athrun roared his determination and more electricity coruscate.

Inside the domes, the stalactites had been completely corroded into stumps as all of its water content had been completely drained out in an instant. All the mineral water continued to flow through multiple filters to distill it further through airtight pipes. "Right, now that we've gathered the volatile mineral water…" The alchemical electricity faltered slightly. "…and that was the easy part…" With this, the alchemical portion of the process is partially over. Up until now the volatile liquid has been in airtight condition, and now they're being gathered in a series of special –still airtight- chambers. Athrun climbed down to the second level, the place where the chemical liquid he had plugged in were ready and waiting, and he landed on a platform.

On this particular platform is the heart of this massive construction. The control panel with various kinds of indicator and gauges to measure and oversee everything that's going on in this machine: gas pressure, temperature, the amount of steam, steel tension and other indicators. At the centerpiece of the control panel, there's a series of levers. 12 in total, matching the number of the processed stalactites. "Okay… now just waiting on the gas…"

Athrun looked at the trembling drill, and when the hissing sound reached its peak, something burst out from the hole that drill made. And then, the pipes and hoses rumbled and twitched as the gush of the geothermal gas exploded and burst out violently inside its confines. The hoses progressively swelled from the inside as the gas flow through them towards the spheres. "Ka-chan! Open the gas valve to Sphere no I!"

There are three valves on the ground, one valve for each sphere. Ka-chan rushed to the valve connected to the aforementioned sphere and cranked it open. The gas continued to flow through various interconnected hose, but they all congregate and headed straight into the sphere chamber, and into the sphere. At the same time, Athrun pulled down one lever, and the process begins. The chamber that contained the distilled pure mineral water were exposed out of its airtight container and, though the outside temperature is super cold, it instantaneously, and explosively, vaporize into, as Athrun described it, an exorbitant amount of steam. At the same time, the capsules containing the chemical liquid injected itself into the process, and like the mineral water, they turned to vapor upon exposure to non vacuum environment, mixing with the already existing gas. In an instant, the supposedly unbendable steel pipe bulged and swelled to over twice its original size, its nuts and bolts nearly snapped open. The bulging also progressively, but violently, went down, going straight into the sphere. The whole contraption shook violently. What's more, the outside of the steel pipes where the vaporized mixture flowed was frozen over.

All that highly pressurized gaseous materials: the highly pressurized super freezing cold steam and high pressure hot gas were super condensed and stored into a small sphere no bigger than a basket ball. Athrun watched as the chemical on the first pipe were drained instantly to the last drop. "YOON! HOW IS IT!?"

"W-W-We're a third full on sphere I! Container holds!"

Athrun grinned widely and then laughed heartily. "HA! HA! HA! As expected of Orb's metallurgy skills! Alright! I'll open up THREE pipes all at once! Yoon! STEP BACK!" Yoon gasped upon hearing the statement and quickly ran to safe distance for dear life. Athrun simultaneously pulled down three levers, and the process repeated again, this time thrice as violent, thrice as explosive. The whole structure shook so violently that for a moment, it looked as if everything will collapse to smithereens. Some actually did collapse, but Athrun seem paid it no mind, deeming them expendable and part of the process. The trembling died down slightly as the first sphere was completely filled to the brim. The first Sphere was finally completed. "Ka-chan! CLOSE THE VALVE!" Ka-chan do so quickly. Her monstrous strength allowed her to quickly close the heavy valve with a spin. Athrun grinned. This is what he meant by instantaneous use of brute force in a very hostile environment. He could've done it himself if he was at full power, but having an assistant of Ka-chan's caliber is truly a blessing.

When things died down a bit, Yoon took the chance to approach the sphere to check the result. The Sphere were smoking, but it remain solid, and more importantly, it's completely full to the brim. Athrun looked with held breath. "Ms. Yoon?"

Yoon swallowed a gulp. "The… container is stable… the transference is a success. It's stable!"

The Audiences in the observation booth had pressed their faces to the glass window, trying to get a better view. Down below, Yoon continued her checkup. Now she's even brave enough to touch it. It's not cold or hot. A precise balance of hot and cold. It was perfect. "Zala-san… j-j-just… just how much power this thing have?"

"How much?" Athrun grinned in satisfaction. "Well… you'll see." Athrun made a move as if trying to swipe the sweat from his forehead. But the weather was so cold, there's no sweat. "Alright. Let's finish this up! I'm opening all tubes! We're gonna build two in an instant!"

"HEEEH?" Ka-chan and Yoon shrieked. "Are you serious, Egghead? Look at the engine! It's in shambles just by making one! If you make TWO all at once…!"

"It's precisely because the whole thing is in shambles that I think we should risk build two all at once." Athrun gulped nervously but he managed to force a nervous wide grin. "As it is I don't think this thing can last that long. Let's finish this up while the whole set is still standing!"

Ka-chan looked at that smile, and she too smiled nervously. "What the… you can go crazy when you want to, eh? Egghead! Okay! YOON! GET YER ASS BACK HERE!" And just like that, Ka-chan quickly opened the two valves. Just like the first one, the network of hoses quickly swelled up. Likewise, Athrun gritted his teeth and pull down ALL remaining 8 levers. The violent process that created the first sphere repeated… this time at a geometrically more explosive scale. The pipes bulged explosively, this time, the already strained bolts, nuts and straps all snapped to pieces. The whole contraption really is crumbling now. Several pipes exploded. Some of the supports were crushed; various kinds of gauges and meters were shattered, various valves and other tidbits exploded here and then. For a moment, the whole thing looked as if they were about to explode in one burst, but then…

"Heh." Athrun smirked and slammed his palms on the transmutation circle, and once again, the whole structure began to glow with red coruscating electricity. The snapped bolts, metal, various kinds of exploded items were engulfed in a wave of transmutation and they were deconstructed molecule by molecule, and then, using that, Athrun transmuted them to repair the crumbling main structure.

"T… That guy… he's using Alchemy to fix the whole thing as it progress!?" The Head scientist gaped.

But even with Alchemical transmutation, Athrun can only slow the inevitable destruction of his machine. Burst of steam began to burst out of emerging cracks, but they were immediately closed shut with alchemy. But other parts too began to leak and rupture. But Athrun keep at it. 'Sphere no II should be just about done… the problem is… sphere no III…' Athrun looked at the Sphere that he had sabotaged. But, as this whole process occurred, that's when his ears register something else: the hissing gas from the drill began to lessen. 'Oh no… in times like this?' "KA-CHAN! YOON! CHECK THE GAS PRESSURE!"

"Huh?" Ka-chan blinked in surprise. But then he saw Athrun was pointing at the drill she left behind earlier. Catching the drift first, Yoon quickly rushed towards the drill and checked the pressure gauge. The pressure gauge is dropping. Yoon blinked in horror. "Wha… the pressure gauge is dropping, Zala-san!"

Athrun gritted his teeth in shock. "Damn it! We were wrong! We didn't reach the core of the volcano, that's just a huge gas pocket! The geothermal gas had run out! And at such a critical stage too!"

Everyone on the observation booth saw that Athrun was yelling in panic to his two assistants down below. It was obvious something went wrong. Sgt. Andras frowned and he quietly moved to the booth exit, in preparation to quickly rush in there, just in case.

'Without the geothermal hot gas to stabilize the super cold steam, this whole thing will blow up violently! What to do, what to-'

"KA-CHAN!" Yoon's scream draw Athrun's attention to the ground. That's when he noticed what Ka-chan was doing. She just climbed to the top of the drill.

"What is she-oh no!" His question was answered when Ka-chan jumped up. Athrun yelled in protest but he was helplessly too late. "Wai-"

And she landed foot first, stomping the drill deeper down in an instant. And this time, the drill really did pierce through all the way to the core.

"Ka-chan! WHAT-!?" the girl's recklessness made even Athrun lost for words.

"Told you I don't really get all this high tech stuff…" Ka-chan grinned. "But as I understand it, you need more of the hot gas, right? And the only way we can get more is dig deeper, right? Well… I just dig!" She smirked and tapped her foot to the drill several times. And indeed, just as she says, the geothermal gas flowed out again at an alarmingly larger and faster rate. And yet, thanks to that, the process quickly stabilized, much to Athrun's own disbelief.

Yoon looked at the situation and realized it as well. Hence, she gave one bulky thumb up to Athrun, signing everything is green across the board-figuratively speaking.

Athrun's initially nervous gasp turned to a smile of relief. "Goodness gracious. You really are-"

No one will ever hear what Athrun was about to say because at that precise moment, the control panel suddenly exploded in a series of massive conflagration that engulfed the whole platform, and Athrun's still smiling face was instantly covered in a cloud of fiery explosion.

Time seem to freeze as everyone's focus was completely drawn to that explosion.

Andras, who was about to leave the room gaped.

Yoon's eyes widened.

And Ka-chan shrieked. "ZALA!"

When the time moved again, the platform crumbled down from above and crashed to the ground in ruins.

Upon seeing the accident, everyone remained still in shock and silence. Mostly out of confusion over what's going down there. So naturally, no one is smiling. But Andras couldn't help not to notice the unmistakable smile from the suspiciously calm Head Scientist. The Head Warden had no more need of second guessing. He marched straight to the man and forcefully have him turn to face him, holding him by his collar. "OI! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?"

The man grinned in a feigned innocence. "What?" The Head Scientist smugly retorted.

Andras gritted his teeth. "Don't think I didn't know! You're the one who just caused that explosion, didn't you?"

"So what if I did?"

"DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU'VE DONE?" Andras roared as he punched the head scientist, sending a few teeth flying.

"Phooey! All I did was teaching that Advanced a little lesson of life." The still remorseless Head Scientist spit the blood from his mouth. "Why do you care?"

The old Sgt. growled in anger. "Well, I hope you're satisfied. Your life lesson might have just ended all our lives."

"What?"

Andras pointed at the place where the platform once was. "That control panel which you just blown up was the ONLY way to control this whole contraption. It's the only way for this machine to be operated safely. And now not only you just destroyed the controller, you've might also have killed the only person that can manage it!" True to Andras' words, as soon as the control panel was destroyed and no Athrun to support the machine, its explosive destruction rate escalated significantly. Pipes began blowing up as freezing steam burst out here and there.

"So his fancy machine will blow up. What do we care? It's not our machine. And we're well protected here." Djibrill stated lightly. Apparently, only Andras who truly understand the doom they had visited upon themselves.

"Can this booth withstand an explosion from a volcano?"

Everyone drop to dead silence upon hearing that statement. "…What volcano?" One of the spectator gaped.

"THIS volcano. Mount Danan! The very base of the volcano we build our base on!" Andras jerked his thumb down, referring to the volcano. "Zala told me. We're standing, right now, near the core of an active volcano. If a massive explosion were to occur, this thing gonna woke up in a very nasty manner. And WE will be caught in the middle of it! Hell, we've made sure of it, for God's sakes!"

"Tch… You're bluffing!" The Head Scientist retorted. "We've done various explosive weapon tests here and the mountain had never even come close to belching. You're telling one cocky advanced brat invention went bad and everything will blow up to hell?"

As if answering the Scientist answer, the WHOLE Krakatau island suddenly began to tremble. Dust and sand began to fell from the stony ceilings of the booth. And the trembling never stopped. Gas began to spurt even more from the cracks and seams of the hole made by the drill. The Underground lab, which initially was half frozen solid, began to melt down at an increasingly rapid pace. And the trembling didn't stop. Rather, they're getting louder and stronger, with no sign of it stopping. Between that and the increasing temperature, are all sure sign of one thing:

"The volcano… she awakes!?"

"What do you think GENIUS!?" Andras roared. "EVACUATE THIS BASE IMMEDIATELY!" Not that the announcement was necessary, everyone was already well on the way of removing themselves from the vicinity.

"Before that-" Djibrill suddenly spoke up. "Send some people down there."

"Yes sir." Andras was about to send men down there.

"And KILL everyone." Djibrill added. An alarmed Andras stopped at that comment.

"Sir?"

"I understand Athrun Zala had managed to finish at least one back there. Retrieve it, and kill the others. We've managed to collect various kinds of notes and information regarding this invention, we'll figure out the rest ourselves." Djibrill went ahead and motioned his elite guards to do the job. When the troopers left, Djibrill glanced at Andras and noticed a disapproving look on Andras. Djibrill simply explained: "We must eliminate all loose ends. They're from Orb. And they know more about Athrun Zala's research more than us. They might be able to help Orb to reconstruct this project again. If we can have exclusive access to this power, none can stand in our way, Zaft… or ORB."

And at that, one of Andras' aide suddenly shot him from the back.

"GAh-haK!?" Andras gasped as his chest suddenly burst into a crimson hue of blood. "Wha… YOU!" Andras looked at his two aides. Both of them were smirking. "You… traitorous… bastard…!"

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Meanwhile, down there…

The Troopers had a bit of a trouble getting in. Problem is, the steel door was frozen over. They've already removed the braces, but it was completely frozen solid on the other side. It's steadily melting, but it didn't melt fast enough.

"Just shoot the damn door already!"

"Wait! WAIT… I think I got this!" One of the troopers used the bayonet on his rifle to pry the door open. With a snap, the door finally moved, and the troops pulled it open. As soon as the door was ajar, a cloud of cold steam burst out and engulfed them all. Due to the increased temperature it's no longer freezing, though it's still thick enough to cloud their vision.

"Okay boys. Nothing fancy, priority is to get that sphere, and kill the rest. Two shots to head and heart, and that's it." The troopers went in, guns at the ready. The trembling grew louder and small fissures start to appear. They quickly scanned the room, searching for their target, guns trailing.

"Hey! I found it!" One of the troopers pointed his finger ahead. There, in front of them, are the three Spheres that Athrun had created, still neatly plugged in their chambers. The troopers quickly moved in to secure the spheres.

"Uhh… which one of these Spheres that Zala had finished?"

"No I! Look it up!"

"I… which one again?" The troopers looked at the Spheres, and lo and behold… they had their numbers erased. Now they don't know which is which. "Uhh…" And while they're still wondering which sphere to take, a figure crawled out from the cloud of steam, appearing right behind them.

A trooper suddenly had his head yanked back and using him as a bludgeoning weapon, Ka-chan smashed the next caught off guard trooper. The other troopers quickly turned around and opened fire. Ka-chan reflexively used the person in hand as a shield. The poor trooper's Kevlar armor protected him only for a while before the next shots finally pierced him. The troopers stopped firing, and Ka-chan dropped the dead trooper on her leg. With a shriek, she kicked the dead body, sending it flying towards the troopers. Two were downed by the human projectile, while the rest quickly roll away. Another two of them quickly took aim at Ka-chan and opened fire.

Ka-chan merely growled and dodged one shot while catching the other bullet midair. She tossed the smoking bullet away and roared as she charged in, grabbing both of her shooters' necks, she bashed their heads together and tossed their unconscious self away like a rag. "You wanna shoot me, you better increase the number of bullets tenfold!"

"As you wish Orb bitch!" Ka-chan stopped momentarily when she heard cocking sound. She turned around and saw around 20 or so Troopers aiming their guns at her.

"Oh… shit."

"FIRE!" In a cloud of smoke, the salvo of bullets zoomed straight towards Ka-chan. There's no way she can avoid all that. That is, until another figure burst out behind her and stood right in front of her, shielding her. All that bullets directly hit the person in various parts of his body. But in the end, the bullets were either pulverized to dust upon impact or, in the case of glancing blows, bounced them off harmlessly somewhere else.

"Huh?" The Troopers looked at the figure and their jaw dropped. They couldn't exactly see who it was. The being was clouded in mist, but it was unmistakably, humanoid… and he was armored. But it doesn't seem human… And even after being shot with over 20 or so bullets, it remained intact and standing.

Green eyes shine through the figure's mist-covered head.

"W… WHUAAARGH!" The troopers frantically opened fire, but the obviously armored creature simply let the bullets to be crushed or bounced as he rampaged amidst their rank. A trooper unloaded all his ammo at the creature at point blank range, but the armor was impenetrable as the being closed in on him. His every foot step is coupled with sound of heavy clanking of steel. He reached to his first victim and kicked him with so much force; the man's body was bent unnaturally and then smashed to smithereens (literally) to the wall. The other troopers fired their assault rifles but it was no use. The armored being stomped his way towards the group and then backhanded the entire crowd, sending them all flying to every direction. One of the Elite Troopers roared and resort to using the bayonet in his rifle. He jumped and went towards the creature's head, intending to stab it. The blade managed to hit him, but it didn't even pierce it. Rather, the dagger was snapped to pieces upon impact. The Armored one swings his hand and punched the trooper straight in the chest, snapping his kevlar hard plates to pieces. Another two troopers tried the same in a pincer move, but the armored being roared and swing his fist in a roundhouse arc, crushing the first trooper's face, and then, still carrying the said trooper dangling on his arm in full swing, he crushed the second one with the said trooper. And still carrying the two troopers, he spin several more times and with a roar, the metallic monster throw the two troopers towards another group with enough force to pulverize the troopers they landed upon.

"What the hell is that thing!?" The troopers quaked in their boots when they suddenly feel the glare of that green eyed thing. Veterans, and they don't know what to make of this. "SUPPRESIVE FIRE! BRING THAT THING DOWN!" The Veteran troopers opened fire one after another to no avail, as their suppressive fire didn't slow the creature's gait anyhow. One of the Sergeants grew desperate and against his better judgment, he readied his helldart. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" The spark lit, the weaponized firecracker launched out of the barrel and hit that thing in the full.

It was a direct hit, with the rocket engulfed the creature in a bright explosion. The thing's form was momentarily revealed to that of a knight. But before the details were made out; it was immediately covered by a blaze of explosion. For a moment, the smoke covered everything from view, and everyone thought this is it. But then, a flash of green eyes from amidst that smoke dashed their hopes. The Armored Knight charged in, blitzing through the mist and the rain of bullets and went on a quick rampage. The sound of bullets bouncing off were quickly drowned by the sound of troopers screaming in pain as the armored thing make a short work of bashing their skull with his armored hands, or sometimes with a kick or two and send them to a crushing end. The troopers were sent flying allover the place.

Upon seeing that, the last remaining troopers lost nerve and quickly made for the exit, intending to close the door shut from the other side. Ka-chan who saw this growled in anger and chased after them. "WAIT JUST A MINUTE YOU TWERPS!"

Alas, she was too late. The troopers managed to get out and closed the gate from the other side. Ka-chan slammed both of her fists into the steel door. The door actually budged, and the surface of the said door was dented in. "OPEN THE DOOR YOU FUCKERS!" Ka-chan began hammering the door with her punches. Fist shaped imprints appeared one by one on the other side of the door with every bang, to the horror of the troopers.

"What on earth is she?"

The banging continued for several more times, and somehow, the door still holds. "Damn steel door!" And then, they began hearing the now familiar horrifying sound of that monster knight's heavy footsteps. Then they began hearing sounds from the other side of that closed door.

"That's Spanish steel door. Ka-chan, let's do it together now."

"Okay, sure."

Upon hearing that, one trooper knew what's coming and, frightened out of his wits; he quickly took off, leaving the others behind to their inevitable fate.

"On three. One, two, THREE!"

And this time, the only thing they hear is a single loud bang, coupled with a brief sight of the sudden appearance of two fist imprints; and the door was instantly snapped off his hinges with the force of a cannonball, crushing the troopers on the other side of that door in an instant.

"Phew! We got out at last." Ka-chan cracked her knuckles and then looked at her partner and whistled in awe. "And you… you really give me a heart attack!"

"Yeah, well, sorry about that. We're kinda… kinda cutting it a bit close." The slightly distorted and reverberating voice ofAthrun Zala flowed from the blank faceplate. Now clad in his finally completed Obsidian King armor, Athrun cracked his neck, checking if all the features of this armor are in its place.

The armor is dark violet in coloration. Its form was somewhat bizarre and form fitting, like a mixture of demonic but regal knight armor, combined with something of reptilian design. The armor's outer layers were formed of conjoined and overlapping but separate armor pieces that completely cover his entire body from head to toe. With the armor being made of separate plates, it's still flexible enough that it won't interfere with his movements. The armor plates, if one were to look closely enough, is also made to look like reptilian segmented skin, and each segment of the skin is actually a small plate, whose surface is filled with microscopic razor sharp scales. Beneath it, interconnecting the armor plate pieces above it is a violet colored muscle like under sheath that wrapped the entirety of Athrun's body.

The shoulder armors feature four protruding serrated blades encircling each shoulder. The arm pieces are form fitting from upper arm below, but a little around the forearm nearing the hand, it was covered in an enlarged and thick scaly layered upper gauntlet, with claws forming the fingers, and jutting small blades littering the surface of the gauntlet. Also, attached to the side of the upper gauntlet, there's a blade protruding out of an attachment on each gauntlet. The similar blade attachment can be seen around the greaves on the knees. The helmet completely covered his head and neck. And yet it was flexible enough that Athrun can still turn his head around. Athrun's green eyes still visible from the darkness of the helm's eye visor. A single horn blade protruded at the front of his helmet, with a green jewel at the base. The blade was of similar built with the ones adorning the armor's shoulder, but this one was slightly bigger and was colored in black. On his back, other than the armor plates to protect his back, there's also a spinal cordlike armor components that run along from the base of his neck to the base of his waist. This too also had several small spine blades protruding out of some of the armor pieces. 'Thank goodness you made it in time, King.'

"You have my grudging respect for making me work so hard to make this so called Aegis class armor, Zala. But remember, your body is currently at its limit. I can only help you for a short while. You must finish this quickly." Kokuyou sounded like a man who just finished a marathon at record time.

'Noted.' Athrun looked at Ka-chan. "Alright then. Let's do this as planned."

"As planned? What are you talking about? We got a volcano that's about to EXPLODE!"

"I know. That was part of the plan."

"W… What?"

"I checked and rechecked my machine countless times. You think I wouldn't notice when someone put a bomb in the control panel that was not 2 feet away from me? Heck, I was counting on it, really." Leaving the stupefied Ka-chan for one moment, Athrun turned back and called for his other co-worker. "Yoon! Come here! It's over!"

From the mist, Yoon timidly walked out of hiding spot.

"I confess, I let that head scientist blew up the control panel on purpose. I was hoping that explosion he set up would be powerful enough to agitate this volcano, and it did." Athrun took a moment, and then, without looking, he caught the fully expected Ka-chan's angry fist trying to pulverize his head. "Before you start screaming, allow me to explain the way we can get out of here alive."

"You got 10 seconds before I terminate your ass!"

"The sphere we have created is the key. We're going to sacrifice one sphere. The volcano will swallow it whole, but it won't destroy it outright. Yoon and I have designed it to withstand extreme temperatures, so the lava will take some time to corrode the shell. But when it ruptures, the massive explosion of the super condensed substance will freeze the rising magma, buying us time before the lava chew through it and then continued its chain of destruction." Athrun explained in 9 seconds and he raised two fingers. "That will take 20 minutes."

"2… 20 minutes… oh I see… you planned this? From the very beginning?" Ka-chan remembered briefly a portion of Athrun's plan that did involve 20 minutes to escape oblivion.

"Yes."

"W… WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME ANYTHING!?"

"I didn't trust you… at the time." The helmet suddenly melted down and uncovered Athrun's remorseful face. "I thought you were one of them, a mole planted inside the prison to spy on the prisoners." Athrun tucked his head down. "I owe you an apology."

"Tch… Zala…" Ka-chan sighed in understanding. "Fine. I'll let it slide for now. We'll talk about this later. So what's the next step of your master plan huh?"

"That depends…" Athrun looked at the three spheres in the chambers.

"You still remember which one is the bomb… right?"

"…" Athrun sweat dropped. Yoon erased the markings to confuse the troopers briefly. That was clever, but now… thanks to all that chaos, he didn't remember which is which. "We have to make a guess… Sphere I is the perfect one. No II was filled but… because the control panel was blown off before the process was complete… I fear it's a bit unstable… no III however…" Athrun gulped. He sabotaged no III in such a way; it will begin the process to explode when someone tried to activate it, but its explosive point is a wild card value.

"What now?"

All the sudden, fissures began to appear on the ground and hot gas burst out of it, and the underground lab is having a bit of drizzle with all the ice melting and the temperature rising sharply. Athrun quickly made the decision. "We have no choice. We have to risk it. I'll take this one, Ka-chan you take that one… we'll leave this one here to blow. Now let's get the hell out of here!" As he said this, Athrun took one sphere, and put it on his back using a makeshift bag just as his helmet covered his face again. Ka-chan also took one sphere, and put it in a well prepared bag; and after making sure Yoon is ready, they removed themselves from the premises immediately just as the whole lab began to collapse completely, leaving just one sphere.

The trio ran across the unguarded corridor, there's hardly anyone left, and everyone was presumably busy evacuating after all. But when they get to the stairs, Athrun stopped for a moment and looked at another direction, sniffing.

"Zala? Come on! What are you waiting for?" Ka-chan also paused for a moment.

"Ka-chan… take Yoon and get out of here, fast. I need to rescue someone."

"Someone? You got another friend here?"

"I… well… I'm not sure if I can call him a friend… after all, he did order me to be tortured…" Athrun frowned. After hearing all THAT for Sgt. Andras, he couldn't help to feel a bit of a sympathy, and… a little bit concerned. "Just now… I caught scent of his blood. He might be injured, and he's nearby. I had to help him."

"Umm… Zala-san… might you be talking about the good Sgt. Andras?" Yoon asked timidly.

"What, the Head Warden?" Ka-chan blinked.

"It's too long to explain. Just go, Ka-chan! I'll catch up with you later!" Athrun quickly ran off, leaving the two girls by themselves. Ka-chan looked at Yoon and then they made a decision.

"WAIT FOR ME ZALAAA!"

"ErgH!?" Athrun blinked and all the sudden, Ka-chan had already caught up with him, running at top speed to match him, while carrying Yoon on her back. "Just explain to me along our way to get to that sergeant of yours! And make it short and simple!"

0000000000000

Meanwhile, back in the booth…

"Betrayal? Oh, no. We're Alliance. We would not betray one of our own." Djibrill smirked calmly as he got up from his chair, preparing to leave just as everyone also began leaving. "But you… you're from ORB, aren't you? Just like that oaf Harlbarton. Tell me… why is ORB citizen had the tendency to side with anyone other than their own?"

Andras gritted his teeth in anger as blood trickles at the corner of his lips.

"I believe it was around 15 years ago… during that Archangel Battleship farce project…" Djibrill recounted. "Orb and the Alliance entered a deal. The idea was to create an enormous battleship quite unlike anything they've ever fielded. But it was a sham. In the end, that so called 'Super battleship' got reduced to a glorified super heavy fortress. It was just a plot for ORB to drain our resources and get their hands on our Lohengrin Cannons. In protest, an entire regiment of Samurais quit and joined the Alliance… chief among them… was Harlbarton, who later became a captain of the 7th division, as well as the master of that hunk of useless fortress… But… among them… there was you as well, right, Andras?"

0000000000000

"The Archangel fraud? Yeah, everybody knows that! We promise a big ass super battleship and we deliver stuck on a mud oversized fortress."

"There's a story behind that! Before the fortress, before the deception, the Alliance had once tried to force Orb into cooperation. Brute force military aggression is right out with Samurais guarding your borders. They plant in double agents and spies, but your country's Shinobis flushed them out. Finally, they tried kidnapping and terrorizing." Athrun explained as simple as he could, based on what Andras had told him before. "People began to disappear in the most backwater villages, only to be found dead in public places. The populace was terrorized daily. Terrorist cells were found and mercilessly cut down… or they were killed before they can be found… but, they just keep coming back. Orb had enough. The Archangel was actually some kind of peace offering. We'll give you the most powerful battleship the world has ever seen, and in return, you leave us alone!"

"I hardly think Orb government would negotiate with terrorist!"

"They don't, do they?" Athrun chuckled. "That project was a lie. It was Orb's method of punishing the Alliance by draining them of funds. There's enough money rolling into that project to bankrupt a small nation! Add that with intentionally corrupt bureaucracy and money politics, the Alliance monetary losses was more than triple that of Orb's. Worse, by the time the Alliance realized they've been duped, they got a lot of their firearms technology stolen and/or copied by Orb, and by then, they're in too much hip deep in one heck of a monetary crisis to notice. They never dared to do anything to Orb again ever since and pulled back all their terrorist activity. And that was 15 years ago. The Knights of Zaft always get a good laugh at it. You guys hit the alliance the hardest where it hurt most, their wallet, it was brilliant."

0000000000000

"The best part is… we get to teach you assholes a little lesson." Andras chuckled but then choke blood to the ground. "Harlbarton, me… everyone… we would die before you Logos creeps sank your teeth on the soils of our country! That's why we left Orb and endure the shame of working as your lapdog. To keep you bastards from getting any more funny ideas!"

"Oh but there's more to that, right Andras?" Djibrill bent down on the downed Andras, gloating with a smirk.

Andras grunted, holding the pain on his chest.

"How's your family, Andras?"

The old sergeant's eyes widened in fury and shock.

0000000000000

"Sgt. Andras' reason however, was personal. 18 years ago, during the kidnapping spree, his wife, already pregnant for 3 months, was kidnapped." Athrun explained what Andras told him. "Ever since then…

"I became an expert in interrogation started around that time. I looked for my wife, high and low. When I found her, she was no longer breathing… but more importantly… she already delivered her child… my child." Andras reiterated in a whispering tone. "The one you saw in Artemis was my daughter. She was born 21 years ago, and she was fortunate enough to escape that kidnapping spree. But she do have a little brother, somewhere out there, in the care of the people responsible for the death of his mother. For years, I've searched for him. When Harlbarton led a company of Samurais to work for the Alliance to… to keep them on the short leash… after the Archangel fiasco; I followed suit. I figure that was the only way I can find my son back. The hope of seeing my son again… that's the only thing that has been keeping me going."

"Are you sure your son is in the Alliance keeping?"

"Very. When I found out my wife had delivered, I used all my Shinobi contacts to find out about the hospital where my wife gave birth. Medical record shows a name: Shani Andras. That was 18 years ago. He'll be about your age by now, I'd wager." Sgt. Andras took a seat right in front of the listening Athrun.

"Why tell me this? If you believe your son served as an Alliance soldier… I might've killed him by accident during one of my battles."

"Maybe so." Sgt. Andras took a deep breath of the cold air and exhaled. "But… at this point, I don't feel like going into revenge or anything. At this point I feel like I can accept whatever outcome I might get: if my son is dead by anyone's hand, I would like to find his body and bury him. If my son is still alive, fighting your kind… I will help him in any way I can as a father should, even if that means someday he might be killed because of it. Though, I'd like to think… that the Alliance couldn't find use of him… and send him away into some… distant place where he can live in peace with a girlfriend, if he's lucky. Heh. An old man's fantasy."

"I think that's any parents' fantasy." Athrun smiled kindly. And then two chuckled.

Athrun gritted his teeth as the smell of blood and death grew thicker in the air, and he quickened his pace. "I have enough of sons who never get to see the face of their parents because of this consarned war."

Ka-chan looked at Athrun's determined glare. "Zala…"

"We're closing in!"

0000000000000

"DJIBRIIIL! WHERE'S… MY… SON!?" Overcome with rage, the old Sergeant managed to get back on his feet even as blood spurted out of damaged heart.

"Serving the Alliance's cause, I assure you." Djibrill signaled the two burly torturers, and they aimed the gun to Andras' head. "But that's no longer your concern. You'll see your wife soon. Farewell, Andras." Djibrill and his retinue left the booth, intending to leave before the Andras' former aide pulled the trigger. But before Djibrill can leave, an uproar occurred just beyond the door. The sound of people screaming, shots fired, bodies colliding, explosions… until finally…

Two been better troopers were smashed through the door, blasting it open off its hinges, and in came one monstrous knight and two girls, one carrying the other, both wear blast suits that covered their beings in all their glory. Needless to say, the Knight's monstrous appearance drew the most attention. Andras who saw the uniquely familiar color of the said armor quickly recognized the super weapon goo that he had protected back in Artemis. "My… God… Zala? Is that you?"

"Zala?" Djibrill looked at Andras and then to the heaving green eyed monster knight in realization, and horror.

Athrun looked at the situation. Andras, lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood with a bleeding chest, the two burly torturers who beat the shit out of him, one of them holding the smoking gun, and then there's Djibrill. In an instant, he understood the situation completely. And with that realization, the blade protrusion from his arms extended out and lengthened into two long swords jutting out from his upper arm guard. The long sword was completely hollow right at the center from the base of the blade but conjoined at the tip. Its edges began to vibrate and oscillate rapidly, producing a menacing ringing sound. Athrun glared at the two aides. Ka-chan understood and so he aimed at Djibrill and his retinue.

"Not looking so good for you fatso." Dropping Yoon, Ka-chan charged straight towards the fat industrialist while his elite guards, two of them, opened fire. Ka-chan easily wade through several bullets flying, dodging them or sometimes catching them and with a roar, she throw a double straight punch and struck the two troopers by the chest, sending them flying through the wall. Leaving Djibrill Sr., falling on his fat ass, at the girl's mercy.

Without saying anything, Athrun charged towards the two torturers. One of them quickly fired his gun at Athrun, but he sliced the bullet off midair with a right backhand slash. And before they can fire another shot, continuing the swing, Athrun used the other blade on his left and cut the gun by the barrel. And just then, the other one quickly draw his rifle and opened fire. The bullet flew in a straight shot towards Athrun. The bullet hit one of Athrun's hard plates, and the lizardlike yet flexible reactive scales received the bullet, and the razor sharp scales instantly shaved and dulled the bullet's sharp edges before its reactive plate rippled and bounced flexibly, pulverized the now dulled bullet, and stopped its momentum before it harmlessly fell to the ground. The blade on his left leg flipped open and with a roar, Athrun sent a roundhouse kick. Blood burst out from the torturer's stump when one of his hand was chopped off by the leg blade, along with his rifle.

"AARGGHHHH! ARGHHH! ARGHH!" The Aide screamed and wailed in agony, holding on to his stumped arm, and the other torturer, losing nerve, quickly came to the aid of his friend.

Athrun stopped attacking for one moment and looked at Andras' condition. He got shot straight in the heart; it's a miracle he can actually survive even now. He glared angrily at Djibrill and swished his arm blades. They were long enough to even unwittingly pierce the ground, but as Athrun launched himself forward, the blade dragged the ground, cutting through the floor with no resistance like a hot knife through butter. Ka-chan make way for the pissed off and fully armed inventor.

"N… Now… Mr. Zala… let's… let's talk this out like a civilized-EEEK!" Djibrill shrieked like a girl when he saw Athrun, raising his blade arm, was in no listening mood.

But before the fatal blow was struck, the volcano chose that time to begin its inevitable rise to eruption. The whole island, inside out, was hit by a wave of massive tremor. Enough shock to knock everyone currently standing, to fell on all fours, Athrun was no exception. Seeing the opportunity, Djibrill ignored everything and quickly make a break for it for the door. The two aides also followed the chubby men and disappeared through the door.

Athrun grunted and after a brief curse, he reasserted his priorities and looked at the dying Sergeant. Athrun get up and grabbed hold of the Warden, quickly drag him up. "Come on! We gotta get out of here."

"Wait, wait, wait… ouch! Oww…" Andras coughed up blood several times.

"Zala-san!" Just then, Yoon shrieked as she pointed at something at the window of the observation booth. Athrun glanced to see if it's what he had expected.

It was. Fissures had long since been cracked open and lava start seeping out as large gas bursting out. The drill collapsed into the hole it made; no doubt it was being melted top to bottom by the rising magma. And then, as the tremor reached its peak, the chamber where they left the sphere collapse and the sphere were swallowed into the flaming cracks. Down below, the sphere fell into the pool of rising magma.

"We got 5 minutes to get 5 floors away from here. Once the magma ruptured the sphere, the explosion gonna freeze everything within that radius."

"5 floors in 5 minutes!?" Ka-chan roared. "I'm a super strong girl not a gazelle! How are we supposed to do that?"

"Ex…" Andras groaned weakly and pointed to the door. "Executive access… just beyond this room… a crane… shaft…" Athrun and Ka-chan looked at each other and nodded. Ka-chan grabbed Yoon and Athrun lifted the Sgt on his back and the two super humanly powerful being dashed out of the room just in time as everything began to collapse.

As they rush through the corridors as guided by Andras, doors began to collapse and pathway crumble left and right. The corridor they run had yet to collapse because apparently it was specially reinforced, further confirming the fact this path is indeed intended for VIPs. However, the two quickly noted that they haven't caught up with Djibrill yet. "How can that fat ass move so fast that we haven't caught up with him yet!?" Ka-chan growled, itching to put her foot on that bumbling ugly balloon for all the shit he put her through.

"Well that fat-ass spent his entire adult life running away from the entire Zaft knighthood military out for his blood. I think he never ran out of practice!" In addition, Athrun was also well aware of their own condition. He doesn't know how strong Ka-chan is at full power, but it's a fact that they hadn't eaten anything in three days. They're weak. That's for sure. Soon, they finally reached the elevator shaft. But it was empty. Upon seeing this, the two quickly came to a conclusion: "Djibrill."

True enough, 4 floors above them and counting, the elevator platform rose up slowly, carrying its three heavy loads: an obese businessmen and two muscle bound torturers. That said, it's quite the heavy load, hence the slow pace.

"Well, what now?" Ka-chan looked at the Plan-Man for an idea. Athrun thought for a moment, and then he snapped his finger. He unpacked the Sphere from his bag. "Oi… what are you doing?"

"Saving our asses." Athrun looked around, searching for some raw material. He found some scrap iron and pile them on top of his sphere. He carved a transmutation circle on the ground and then clapped his hands together before slapping it down. Electricity run through the converged object, and some pieces transformed. But it was not done yet. Athrun quickly gathered more materials and repeat the process. Meanwhile… minutes passed.

By that time, mount Danan is fully awake and on the verge of exploding. The mountain began excreting black smoke from its flaming crater. The base itself began to collapse in various areas which lost its support structure. The underground lab had long since been swallowed by the roaring magma.

The saboteur head Scientist were still busy collecting some of his research. Once he felt he collected enough, he reached to the door handle and shrieked in pain upon feeling just how hot the handle. And then, to his horror, lava began to sip out of the door and the ground began to crack as well, and the lava went in at a very rapid rate. It crept across the floor burning, melting everything… and everyone slowly… so torturously slowly…

Meanwhile, Athrun raced against the rising volcano, finishing his work as quickly as possible. He managed to grab a few more steel plates and put them together with the half finished elevator. One spark of alchemy later and it's done: a circular platform was formed, with wheels placed on the edges of the platform. At the center of the platform, is the Sphere, mounted on some form of machine. "Remember what I said about this 'engine'? It is pure power, to be easily used at time of need as easily as one uncorked a bottle of water when thirsty." Athrun quickly moved the makeshift elevator into the shaft, the elevator fits perfectly. But by then, lava also began to flow in through that corridor, much to the horror of everyone. "Now everyone! Get on board! This thing is a jet propelled express elevator!"

The four went atop the elevator and Athrun grabbed the lever and, crossing his fingers, he activated it. The Sphere had been designed with a single exhaust vent. Now the vent opened, and the two substance: Super cold, super condensed chemical steam mixed with the scorching hot geothermal gas. The hot and cold mixed and their ignition unleashed unimaginable amount of reactive force in form of a massive burst of steam that acted as a jet booster. The Elevator was instantly propelled to an incredible speed of 175 km per hour, its occupants were pressed down flat on the platform.

"ArrrgghHH! MAN! WHAT POWER THIS THING HAVE?" Ka-chan groaned under the pressure. It felt like something heavy just is trying to squeeze her whole body flat.

'And to think, I'm wearing an armor that weigh over 5 tons and it can still go this fast!' Athrun grunted as he knelt down, feeling the pressure upon his entire armored being. 'I think I've just unleashed one of the most powerful forces on earth… the hell am I thinking!?'

And they quickly traversed through 3 floors. But they still have 17 to go, and it's a very tall tower.

The platform roared up, just as the roaring lava burst swallowed everything down there, and they began to rise up at a rapid pace. At that time, the Sphere left on the pool of roaring lava was already red scalding hot, and as soon as the lava pierced the shell, already being heated past its tolerance limit, ruptured to sufficient amount…

The ignition of the said sphere was soundless. The supposedly deafening noise of such powerful form of energy being ignited was muffled by layers upon layers of magma it flash frozen in a single instant. The bursting gas from the cracks and seams of Mt. Danan were silenced simultaneously. The entire island lurched by a single massive shockwave that rattled it from the top of the mountain to the base of the island, sending a massive ripple that traverse across the ocean. For the moment, on the surface of the earth, a tiny but visible halo appeared with the Krakatau island at the center.

On the outside, the effect was silent but massive… which is to say something about its effect on the inside.

The Elevator shaft trembled left and right. The jet platform Athrun and the others sat on were rocked multiple times, and at some point even tilted, threatening its occupant on a deep plunge into the frozen abyss. But the rocket continued to propel them up to safety. In fact, the cold freeze shockwave of breeze coming from that explosion propelled them even faster above! "THAT WAS IT! THAT WAS DETONATION!"

"HOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLEEEEEEY SHIIIIIIII~

~IIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTT" Ka-chan's scream was carried over across the shaft and reached the other elevator 4 floors above them. However, while Athrun's elevator was fortunate enough to survive the blast with only a few life-threatening rocking along the way, the overweight elevator up above was not so lucky. That one shockwave just now had really ruined their elevator and now it's stuck on 15th floor for some reason. The two Aides couldn't figure for the life of them what went wrong, and the panicking Djibrill was no help.

"SAVE ME YOU INCOMPETENTS! WHAT THE HELL DO I PAY YOU FOR!?" the fat man yelled in horror. "IF I LOSE EVEN ONE STRAND OF HAIR, IT'LL BE YOUR FAULT! YOU BRAWN FOR BRAINS!"

They looked around and noticed a sliding door about 12 feet away from the elevator platform. "That's the door to the 16th floor. I think we can climb through that." The First Aide, the one missing a hand, pointed at the door with his remaining hand. "One of us will push one guy up, and once you get there, the one guy pull the other guy up!"

"That'll work." The second Aide nodded. The two guys were pretty tough after all, even if they're a hand short.

"Then hurry up, you nincompoop!" The chubby fat man grew more desperate.

The first aide knelt down and before they can say anything, Djibrill climbed first and stomp on the first aide's head. Alas, the fat man was too short to reach the 16th floor, even when being pushed by the First Aide. "Higher. HIGHER YOU NUMSKULL! HIGHEER!"

The Aide tried with all his might to push the fat man up, but by godfrey, the chubby fella weighs a TON! Quite possibly literally! Until at last he just couldn't do it and fell. "Tell you what sir. How bout if my friend go up first, then he can lift you up while I push you up at the same time."

"Fine. But remember my safety is a priority, you realize that, lowlifes!?" Djibrill croaked.

"Yes sir." The two aides replied in an annoyed tone. The second aid step on the first aide shoulder and with a jump, he easily reached the 16th floor and climbed up. First he checked the situation. Things had been… strangely calm after that cold shockwave… what gives? Still, the situation looked secure though there's no one around. He doubt anyone would want to waste more time here anyway. The Second aide turned around and knelt down, stretching his hand to help the other two passengers up.

"Now hurry! Quit dawdling around like ingrate you are and help me up! QUICKLY! MY LIFE takes priority!"

The other two people weren't so happy being yelled like that, especially when they're in such a dangerous situation. It was then they began hearing something from down below. Everyone looked down and gaped when they saw another elevator rapidly gaining on them in a jet propelled burst.

"Bloody mother hubbard! It's those three crazy guys!"

"Where the hell did they get that elevator?"

Djibrill became even more panicked. "Oohh! This is all you two idiots fault! You should've killed them all when you had the chance! Now you have to sacrifice yourself to hold them back and ensure safety! GOT IT!?"

The two aides looked at this fat asshole and then to each other and nodded wholeheartedly: I had enough of this lard bag. The first took a few steps backward.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

He took a sprint and stepped on Djibrill's bloated face. Maiming the man's face whilst using it as a stepping stone, the Aide jumped up, and his friend grabbed his remaining hand then quickly pulled him to safety on the firm 16th floor. Djibrill gaped and rolled in pain. "Whj… What are you doing you bastard! Are you just gonna leave me like this?"

The two aides looked at each other than to the fat stuck businessman. "No. Of course not." They pulled out their triple barreled flintlock sidearms and then shoot all their bullets at the rope holding the broken elevator. The rope snapped and the elevator went to a free fall, with a screaming Djibrill inside.

Down below, Athrun and the others clearly saw the incoming elevator. "They dropped the elevator on us!"

"STOP OUR ELEVATOR! WE'RE GOING TO CRASH! PULL ON THE BRAKES!" Ka-chan yelled.

"Brakes?" Athrun blinked.

Ka-chan looked at Athrun.

Yoon looked at Athrun.

Even Andras looked at Athrun.

Athrun blinked several times, opened his palm and clapped his fist on it as a light bulb lit up. And then he started carving a note on his open palm in substitute to paper and quill. "Hold that thought, I'll make the note: Bee… Arr… Ay… Kay…" And everyone realized they've entrusted their lives to the wrong genius.

The elevator above is coming down fast!

"Oh THAT'S IT! ENOUGH WITH THIS INVENTION SHIT AND BLOW SHIT UP!" Ka-chan climbed to the highest point of their elevator and readied her fist.

"What are you doing?"

"One thing I'm good at." Ka-chan balled her fist and she can feel her arm muscles began to bulge up. Veins appearing allover her arm. "Doton Taijutsu…"

"Eh?"

"Sky…" All the bones in Ka-chan's right arm start to crack. "…Quake…" The elevator above is but a few hundred meters away… "…PUNCH!" Ka-chan's fist jerked upward, and the arm portion of her blast suit were torn to burnt shreds in an instant. And what comes next made Athrun gape. The sky where Ka-chan fist punched was CRACKED. And then another crack appeared above it, and another, and another, the ripples of cracks went up towards the falling elevator and upon contact, the elevator was instantly shattered. The cracking sky effect continued to occur multiple times and it shatter and completely pulverized everything down to the last barely recognizable contoured pieces of scrap… all was obliterated.

But it was not over, and their elevator is going towards the falling elevator faster than Ka-chan's technique destroying it. The still sizable pieces of the destroyed elevator fell down upon them like rain. Yoon instinctively moved to protect the closest person next to her, that being the unprotected Andras, using her blast suit to withstand the rain of objects. Ka-chan however, her blast suit was ruined by that attack. Athrun quickly rushed over her and pushed her down.

"ZALA!" Ka-chan squealed in shock.

"KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN AND YOUR MOUTH SHUT!" Athrun shielded Ka-chan with his back. With a thunderous clanging, the huge steel chunks of the destroyed elevator crashed with theirs; falling hard upon Athrun's back, with Ka-chan can only stare in horror beneath him. Athrun grunted. Even with his armor capable of withstanding extreme blows, getting hit by a few tons of steel and wood still hurts. And then the rain began to die down, and it was ended with something fell with a nasty splat on their back and something bloody and fleshy smacked on the back of Athrun's head. Blood run across Athrun's masked face and its droplets fell on Ka-chan's horrified face.

Finally, after a while, the steel rain stopped. Athrun finally got up. "You okay?"

But Ka-chan couldn't care less of her wellbeing. The guy on top of her looked even worse off! "Oi! Your head! It's bleeding!"

"Hng?" She was right. His face was covered in blood. But… it was not his. Athrun grabbed something on the back of his head and noticed it was… a severed but familiar looking chubby arm. "But… this is…"

Athrun turned around and then saw a hunk of big fat piece of mangled bloody red meat, right at the center of their elevator, hung on the rocket booster engine like a dead cattle in a slaughterhouse. All that was left of Djibrill the Sr. the current head of the Djibrill clan. Athrun blinked. The fat guy must've still on the elevator when it went down.

"Oh, gross." Ka-chan covered her mouth. She knew she wanted to kick the fat guy's ass… but… not like this… not this brutal.

"To think… one of the head of the Logos foundation will die like this…" Athrun allowed himself a moment of mourning. Just a moment. Even enemies deserve some measure of respect when they're dead. But then he quickly sorted himself out and looked at the situation. First, he needed to look for Yoon and Sgt. Andras. "Yoon! Yoon! Are you alright? Where are you?"

"I'm right here!" the sound came from a pile of rubble. Athrun and Ka-chan quickly acted and rid the rubbles away. Once the rubbles are out of the way, there they saw Yoon. She's fine, but her blast suit was mangled.

"Yoon! Are you okay?" Ka-chan shrieked.

The Korean Girl had tearful eyes. "I'm okay! But… the Sergeant…! The sergeant!"

Athrun's heart skipped a beat. Yoon move away, giving view of the poor Sergeant, whose condition had worsened significantly. "Oh no… we gotta get out of here… We gotta give him some medical aid! Anything!" Athrun looked at the elevator, and that's when they realized the elevator had long since grinded to a full stop. The pieces of the first elevator had lodged itself on the wheels, nailing them in place, albeit momentarily. A spark of suspicion strike him, and in horror, Athrun roughly removed Djibrill's dead body away from the machine and then saw the damage it has done: Djibrill's weight had drove a piece of steel deep into the machine… and judging by the fact that the surface of the machine was steadily frozen up… the steel had managed to damage the sphere and cause a leak. Soon, it'll rupture and it's practically on a countdown towards destruction.

"Zala, what happened?"

"The Core Sphere has been damaged. The rocket elevator's no go!" Athrun banged his fist in frustration to the platform. And just then, the elevator began to go down. Pieces of steel began to crumble. "And this elevator won't hold out much longer. We gotta bail! And fast!"

"And go where?" Ka-chan waved her arms to show them there's no exit. They're inside a giant earthen shaft with absolutely nothing around them: no holes, no doors, they're trapped.

To makes things worse, they began to hear another rumbling. Down, down below, the frozen magma began to crack open as gas and other fumes burst out of its confines. Lava had also begun to spill out once more. The eruption will soon recommence. The wrath of Mother Nature was not so easily contained.

"What to do now…?"

Athrun think hard and long. He thought of using the alchemy. But then, when he contemplated that, he felt something jerking up from inside him and he collapsed to one knee. Athrun blinked. 'Wha… don't tell me… I'm at my limit already!?' Then again, he's been wearing this thing nonstop, and still performing repeated alchemy at that. It's no wonder he's running out of juice sooner or later. 'oh no… what… what should I do now?' But for all his brain power, he was completely lost on alternatives. That was when he noticed Ka-chan is moving towards the earthen wall of the shaft. "Oi! What are you doing!?"

"I'm not sitting here, waiting for a tow truck to come and get us! I'll bust us a hole out of here!" Back then, she used her right arm, and now she's using her left. "Fuuton Taijutsu…" Her balled fist unfurled into a chop. "Fang…" Ka-chan began to spin her forearm rapidly, with the tip of her elbow as the base. "…Tornado…" The spin grew faster and faster, Athrun was shocked when he realized a gust of wind began to gather around Ka-chan's spinning forearm. She was spinning her forearm vast enough that it even began to sucking up all the air around them. "…PIERCER!" the girl roared and she thrust her spinning arm forward.

Athrun could hardly believe it, but a Tornado literally appeared from her arm and it drilled through the rock. The tornado continues to spin, but after a while, it finally died down just as Ka-chan collapsed on her knees. Both of her arms hung down of her shoulders, twitching in pain. But she did left a sizable hole on the wall. Not deep enough for them to walk through though. "Ka-chan!" Yoon shrieked in horror and quickly came to her friend's aid.

Athrun gasped. Ka-chan's arms were completely blue, as they were bruised inside out. Then again, it makes sense. That Sky Quake Punch, and now this… Fang Tornado Piercer. Athrun couldn't figure the logic of how a girl like her can do such feat of super human strength. But it was obvious it drained a lot out of her, not to mention her famished state.

Ka-chan gritted her teeth, holding down the seething pain of her arms being torn apart and get back on her feet. She raised her arm again. "A… Again…"

"No, Ka-chan! Stop! That arm will be destroyed if you do it again!" Yoon hold on to Ka-chan's arm trying to stop her suicidal attempt.

Ka-chan ignored Yoon's pleading and made ready to do it again. But before she can do so, Athrun grabbed her shoulder and pushed her back. In a flash, Athrun carved a transmutation circle on the wall, clapping his hand and with a roar he slammed the runic circle. The circle glowed red, and in an instant, a smooth hole, large enough for all of them to go in, emerged and Athrun pushed forward, using alchemy to tunnel his way. "FOLLOW ME!"

Ka-chan and Yoon gaped but then they nodded and grabbed the dying Andras before they followed the boy. Athrun felt like every neuron of his brain was being strained to the limit, and yet he kept pushing on and on, digging his way up.

Meanwhile, behind them, the rumbling sound gets louder, and the temperature rose up sharply. The lava had finally remelted the frozen magma rock and it began to rose up at a rapid pace. It had reached the lower levels of the shaft, and once again began melting and burning everything in its way. The rumbling caused the destroyed elevator to finally collapse and fell to the fiery lava pool below.

"Zala! I think our elevator just collapsed!" Ka-chan informed the grunting Athrun.

"Keep… moving…!" Athrun grunted as he struggled to continue pushing forward. "When the Sphere… reached… the lava… the same… pattern… will… repeat!"

Just as Athrun had said, the leak on the sphere began to worsen, and when the elevator finally fell on top of the lava, parts of the elevator were instantly melted, but the cold breeze from the leaking sphere froze the surface. But the lava below continues to eat through the frozen surface, and they are rapidly being frozen thus momentarily hold the rising lava at bay.

Athrun continue to tunnel their way out, climbing up. Luckily, he managed to map the structure of the entire tower in his head, so he knew where he needs to go. However, the situation is deteriorating fast. The temperature that initially cooled down is sharply rising once again. The lava continues to rise in other parts of the tower, not just the one in that shaft. The surface of the shaft above the frozen magma surface cracked open and lava poured in, bathing the frozen magma, and the stuck Core Sphere, and the lava began to heat the sphere as the lava continue to pool up. The tunnel they all walk is growing steadily hotter and hotter. After long minutes that felt like hours, a burst of light finally welcomed them, a sign that Athrun had managed to reach an exit.

The four walked out of the hole, breathing sweet fresh air. But as they realized, they're not out yet. They just tunneled out into another corridor, and a number 3-17 on the wall indicated that they're still underground.

"Zala? This is?"

"This is the 17th floor… well… the 3rd floor. Which… to say… we're 2 floors away from the top level." As he said this, Athrun finally collapsed and his armor cracked open before dispersing into him.

"Zala! Zala! You're okay!?"

"I'm…" Athrun never felt so weak all his life. Tunneling his way using prolonged Alchemy when he's already in danger of using his very own life force… he's really pushing it. He tried to stand up, only to fall to his knees again. Ka-chan quickly rushed to his side and helped him up. To her surprise, she struggled under his weight.

"Damn Zala! You really need a DIET!" That was a partial joke from Ka-chan's part. Athrun had eat less than nothing even before they went through their 3 day fasting. But boy, he still weighs a lot.

"Yeah… I've been… injecting some iron into me… ha, ha…" Athrun laughed. He was also particularly impressed that Ka-chan can actually lift his 5 tons of deadweight of a body, even if she had to struggle to do so. But then, he looked back to the hole he tunneled just now. "…brace yourself… it's coming! The second detonation!"

"HEADS DOWN!" Everyone fell down to the floor.

Back at the shaft, the core sphere finally melted, and in that instant…

This time, there's a sound. And it's deafeningly loud. Every window, every glass objects were shattered. The pooled up lava down the shaft was instantly frozen, and yet the freezing cold burst of cloud from the destroyed core sphere bust through the layers of lava and punch through all the way to the top, even punching through the ground surface, creating a tower of bursting cloud reaching hundreds of feet tall that can be seen for miles… a second shockwave shook the whole Krakatau Island once again.

Inside, the cloud burst through the tunnel that Athrun had dug. Ka-chan look to the tunnel and saw the cloud is fast approaching at near instantaneous speed, but just as the cloud reached the exit and was about to engulf them all, it stopped. The cloud froze just inches away from them. Outside, the pillar of gas also turned into a pillar of frozen cloud. A pillar so high that it dwarfed the Danan volcano in height… but after that, it shattered to million sparkling pieces.

Needless to say, this peculiar event draws attention of everyone…

Zaft outpost in Jakarta…

"Pak! Lihat itu! (Sir! There!)" A knight pointed at the rising and falling of the pillar of frozen cloud.

"Ada apa gerangan di pulau Krakatau (What on earth is going on in that Krakatau island)?" a senior Water Knight see what his subordinates had seen. Then again, all eyes had been looking at the said volcanic island for a while. What's with the ridiculously huge shockwave that can be felt all over the island of Java… no, the entirety of Indonesia, even the whole Southeast Asia. What's more, the said volcano had been smoking nonstop. "Pertama gelombang raksasa tadi… dan sekarang ini? Ini bukan kejadian alam! (First the huge wave and now this? This is no natural occurrences!)"

"Tapi… gunung Krakatau memang menunjukkan aktivitas yang mengkhawatirkan selama beberapa bulan ini pak! (But… the Krakatau Mountain did show some troubling activity in the last few months, sir.)" The Emerald Knight reported. "Apalagi, beberapa hari ini kapal-kapal kita terus melaporkan mereka mendengar 'Guntur di bawah laut'! (Moreover, in the last few days, our ships reported that they heard thunderbolt beneath the seas.)"

"Guntur di bawah laut!? (Thunderbolt beneath the seas!?)" the Senior Water knight glared intensely at the said Emerald Knight.

"Saya tahu kedengarannya gila tapi… (I know it sounds crazy, but…)"

"Nak, kamu tak pernah melihat gunung meletus ya? (Son… you've never seen a volcano erupting have you?)"

"Ehh… tidak? (Ehh… no?)"

"Ok. Mari berharap kau tidak akan melihatnya. (Ok. Let us hope you won't be seeing it)" The veteran Water Knight swallowed a gulp. "Bunyikan alarm! Evakuasi wilayah sekitar Krakatau dan Jakarta SEKARANG JUGA! (Sound the alarm! Evacuate the area in vicinity of Krakatau and Jakarta RIGHT NOW!)"

"S… Siap pak! (S… SIR YES SIR!)" The emerald knight was about to leave but before that… "T… Tapi pak… bagaimana dengan kejadian tadi? Bapak bilang itu bukan kejadian alam… bukankah itu berarti ada orang yang sengaja melakukan itu, entah bagaiman caranya? (B… But… sir? What about that event just now? You said that was no natural occurrences… doesn't that mean there's someone doing it intentionally, somehow?)"

"Hanya orang berani mati yang sakit jiwa atau berotak udang yang mau berada tepat di sebelah gunung berapi yang mau meledak! Tak usah pedulikan mereka. Kalau mereka mau mati, biar gunung itu yang lakukan. (Only a suicidal nutcase or numskulls would want to be standing right next to a volcano on the verge of exploding! No need to worry about them. If they had a deathwish the mountain will do the job for us.)"

Back to the Krakatau Alliance Outpost…

"That… was… close…" Ka-chan panted and gasped as she looked at the falling pieces of the frozen cloud. "I thought we were going to be turned into a human popsicle…"

"That bought us another… 20 minutes… let's go!" Athrun struggled to stand up on his own if only to help Ka-chan to carry him up easier. Fortunately Yoon doesn't seem to be having much difficulty carrying Andras. However, before they can get far, they run into the last two people they want to meet. The two traitorous aides.

"YOU AGAIN!?" Both group echoed each other.

Ka-chan roared and made ready for combat, but then she remembered she's carrying Athrun on her back. The two alliance trooper also take a better look at the situation and opposition. None of them pose any genuine threat. Upon that realization, the two smirked, seeing the chance. But before they can do anything, the tired Athrun spoke. "Wait."

Everyone looked at the raven haired boy.

"Look. You're Alliance, we're Zaft… I get that. But for now, I'm asking you, as fellow humans, to stop the fighting for now. We're standing next to a volcano that's about to erupt. My invention managed to freeze the eruption, but I'm only postponing the inevitable. In 15 minutes, this mountain will continue its chain of destruction once they melted the frozen part, and it'll blow up, destroying this base even this WHOLE Island!" Athrun pleaded. "I'm not asking you to save us… just ignore us. Save yourself. You guys can still make it out of here if you run now!"

The two Aides looked at each other, as confused as hell. "Nah. I think we'll just kill you and then make a run for it."

"Zala… have I mentioned these two are idiots?" Andras groaned.

"Thought so." Athrun growled. "You really had it rough."

"Tell me about it."

"S… SHUT UP!" one of the Aide pointed the gun at Andras and fired. Athrun quickly moved in and took the bullet… on his head.

"ZALA!" Everyone screeched in horror.

But then Athrun growled angrily and showed his still intact head. His skin began to regenerate, albeit slowly, giving them a clear view of Athrun's cranium… which has a red metallic coloration. Athrun wanted to fight, but his body can barely stand. He turned to Ka-chan: "Run. Put me on your back! RUN!"

Ka-chan lifted Athrun and put him on her back and they all ran, as the two aides shoot at them and even called for help. But Ka-chan was at the rear, protecting Yoon and Andras using Athrun's Kokuyou laced skeletons as shield. Andras glanced in disbelief seeing how bullets merely left flesh wounds on Athrun and they all bounced off the boy's now metallic endoskeleton. Between that and… if his healing factor work in full force… the boy was damn well indestructible. "Zala… did you coated your own bones with Kokuyou!?" Never in his wildest dream had Andras thought that the gooey superweapon he had guarded will be used in such a way.

"Well, it was meant to be drunk." Athrun grinned. "Where's the exit, Sgt?"

"Exit… exit…" Andras looked around. "There. Just keep going… thataway."

"You heard the boss, ouch!" One of the shots hit Athrun by the cheek. By now, every remaining trooper in the base is on to them. They seem had forgotten the fact that their mountain base is on verge of being swallowed by a volcano and were too preoccupied with killing them. In fact… to Athrun's eternal disbelief, they were frenzied. One bullet bounced off his bone and zig-zag all over the place and accidentally hit a trooper by the head. The other ignored him, even step on him and still opened fire at Athrun like an idiot. And then a scream: "FOR THE PURE AND BLUE WORLD! DIE YOU ADVANCED MONSTERS!"

"Pure and blue…!" Athrun gaped. He would know that yell anywhere. The yells of the Order of Blue Cosmos!

They all ran through corridor after corridor, until finally, they reached a door. Yoon saw what the door will lead to and gaped. "Wait, STOOP!"

They all stopped. "What is it, Yoon?"

Yoon narrowed her eyes at the writings on the door. "This… this is not the exit… this is… the kitchen!"

"What?" Athrun and Ka-chan gasped. Then they looked at the near death Andras, the only one who doesn't seem to be surprised. "Sgt? What's the meaning of this?"

"It's the only way Zala." Andras muttered weakly. "The only way for you guys to get out of here and survive their onslaught… is for you to replenish your strength… and go wild with… whatever your Zoan bloodline limit is."

"But…" Before Athrun can say anything, bullets rained upon them. One slipped his defenses and hit Ka-chan's shoulder, earning a scream. Several more hit Andras in several spots, worsening his condition to the point of beyond help.

Seeing the situation, the bloodied Ka-chan suddenly dashed forward, caught Yoon and Andras, and then, lifting all three of them, she threw them all into the pantry and closed the door. She quickly barred the door and dent it so that it can't be opened from outside.

"KA-CHAN! KA-CHAN!" Yoon banged the door multiple times.

"EAT!" Ka-chan screamed.

Athrun blinked.

"You're in the God-damn kitchen! EAT! If you say you're one HELL of a monster when you're full! EAT TILL YOUR STOMACH BURST! I'll hold them off while you eat." Ka-chan grinned widely as blood trickled on the corner of her lips.

"LADY KA-CHAN!" Athrun yelled in distress. How can things go so wrong? This isn't how it supposed to work!

"I ain't letting you die. I came here to save my friend. Now… I'm here to save my friends." Ka-chan chuckled. "I like you, Zala. You're a friend of mine now, so don't die okay!?"

Three troopers came into view, and upon seeing Ka-chan, they opened fire, as they've been ordered to kill on sight. 15 shots, and 4 hit her abdomen. The blonde girl vomit blood, but with a bloody roar, she charged them and socked their heads, ignoring the gunshot wound on her stomach. "COME ON YOU ASSKISSING COCKSUCKER! YOU NEED MORE THAN TOYS LIKE THIS TO STOP ME! RAAAAAAAAAAAARGHH!"

Forget her aching bruised arms. Even with that, the girl rampaged and used the troopers like batons, holding them by their heads, smashing through hordes of other troopers. Her fists punched through their armor like tissue paper, bashing their insides to mush. A single kick and she sent a trooper flying, knocking down an entire row of marching troopers back by a few hundred meters. A bullet nearly hit her eye but she tilted away and the bullet passed through her unharmed and then he smashed the shooter's face to a mess.

"WHROAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGHHH!"

0000000000000

Inside…

The dying Sgt lay on the floor, his life is nearing its end. But Athrun wouldn't have that. "Sgt. Andras! Please! Hold on just a little bit longer, we got a plan, we gotta stick to it!"

Andras laughed weakly. "Zala… w… why do you help me?"

"Why… It's the right thing! Come on! You gotta live! You… You gotta see your son and daughter again! Come on!"

"Daughter… right…" Andras chuckled again. "If I think about it now… I never get to thank you… for sending my daughter to Orb."

Athrun desperately tried to do something, anything to stop all the bleeding… but it's no use. He can hear the old man's pulse weakening, his skin paling, his breath slowing down to a full stop…

"This war… needs people like you, Zala." Andras tapped Athrun's shoulder. "You saw… those troopers out there? They concern themselves more of killing you than to survive. You, a single Advanced over the life of the entire base… Those… are but a small sneak preview of what this war will turn into… if Logos… if the Order of the Blue Cosmos had their way. The repeat… of the Holocaust. But… that will also apply… to the both of us."

000000

"The girl named Ka-chan said this… you kill someone, and someone precious to that someone will kill you. And then someone precious to you will kill that someone… and so on and so forth…"

Ka-chan uppercut a man's gut until her fist sank, grabbed him, lift him up, and then slammed him back down, creating a crater.

"She was right… I don't know when this cycle of killing started. This cycle of madness… of one can preach about their own ideals, their own justice and think they're in the right side… and think they can use that to justify the massacre of millions… that's insanity no matter how we see it. And we know insanity when we see it! Heck, we live through it during the Sengoku period!"

A trooper had his head yank, and the blond girl used him as a human shield and she dash forward at blinding speed, still carrying the hung trooper and rammed the other troopers with said man.

"This war… had been going on for far too long. It's ridiculous. We fought and kill each other because we had different red colored blood in our veins! Sadness pile upon sadness, tragedy upon tragedy… new reasons to prolong bloodshed and hatred continue to pile one after another… In the end… both sides will strive to achieve nothing but kill counts."

"AAAH! AAAHH!" A trooper was helplessly being spin midair by the hair as Ka-chan angrily bashed the man's body to every trooper that get in the way.

"And when the two sides had their fill of murder and massacre one another… they'll forgot what they were fighting… and then they just keep… going! What's the point then? When everything is said and done… when the final sword is sheathed…"

A trooper were being punched repeatedly until his stomach was deformed and with one final punch from Ka-chan, she sent him flying through a wall.

"When all the destruction and all the sacrifice that had been made… when all is dust… what will we be left? What the hell are we fighting for then?"

000000

"Zala… this war must end. I don't care who'll win. Zaft, Alliance… it doesn't matter anymore. Insanity will took over… and then all they care about… will be death." Andras coughed several times and realized his time is near.

Athrun realized there's nothing more he can do.

"One last thing… call it a favor… shameless as it may…" Andras' breathing get heavy. "My son… my son is still alive. Djibrill told me… he's serving the Alliance now. He's out there… somewhere…"

"Then you have to live! Find your son! Let him see his father's face even just once!"

"Too late… too late for that, kid." Andras grinned. "I'm… in charge… of this base… I will go down with it. Just tell my son… his father died… with pride and happiness."

Athrun closed his eyes for a moment, and then he made a promise. "I will find your son. I will tell him how his father had lived."

Andras gave out one last smile… and he breathed his last.

Athrun couldn't hold back his tears and rage. He gritted his teeth until blood snaps out of his lips.

000000

Athrun once again found himself in that gearful of space. Athrun looked at this surroundings and suddenly he came to understand what this place is. This is his mind. The physical personification of what his mental state was like. It's a mind of metal and clockwork. Precise. Controlled. And monotone. There's no room for error here… but at the same time, it's also has no room to expand. It's… constrained. Just like those gears, kept spinning in its place on and on. And now that he thinks of it… this room fit him perfectly. So constrained over orderly world. So constrained over plans and making sure everything goes as scheduled. No room for change.

Ka-chan was right. How can he be that naïve? He created those things, and he thought everything will always be under his control. All his plans, all his strategies… and he thinks everything will always fall neatly into place.

Up there, Kokuyou gazed down at Athrun.

"King…"

Suddenly, Athrun and the Obsidian King found themselves standing on a level ground, seeing eye to eye.

"I'm gonna stop being human for a while." Athrun's bloodshot green eyes shone beneath the shadows of his darkened wrathful face.

000000

Inside, Athrun roared in anguish and then, he began eating. In fury, he ate. In rage, he ate. In wrath and rave, he ate. Ate and ate and ate. In sorrow, in incomprehensible anger, in unquenchable bloodthirst and near madness he ate and ate. All he care of, all he can think of, is replenishing his strength and then make those sons of bitches pay. That's all there is. That's all he want. There's no calculation. There's no plan. There's no tactic. Just kill the fuck out of them all, let the Gods sort them out!

One last bite… and he's ready.

Outside, Ka-chan is practically fighting atop a pile of dead and smashed troopers. Her fists had been covered in blood, and God knows how many times their bullets had managed to strike home, but, as far as she can tell, none of them were fatal. She must've downed at least 200 of them. And she still got a lot more coming! "COME ON YOU SONS OF BITCHES! I STILL GOT A LOT MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM YOU FUCKERS!"

Teeth turned to fangs.

However, by that time, the troopers had just finished their preparation: they brought artillery into play! Ka-chan stopped for one full second to register a Gottfried cannon was being aimed at her and she stopped boasting for a moment. "Ah…" The cannon fired, sending a shell straight to her heart. Her hand moved, and she managed to catch the shell millimeters away from her heart. The Troopers jaw dropped when they saw a 17 year old girl caught the cannonshell like a basket ball. Ka-chan tossed the shell several times and then threw them back with speed, smashing through stuffs in a blur.

150 Km away from the island, the shell finally exploded after it blew through holes over 2 mountains that happened to be in its way.

Despite all that mass destruction, Ka-chan missed. The troopers were unharmed. Just scared shitless. "Oops."

Nails to claws.

And then… all the sudden, the ground rumbled. The troopers paused and looked around. Wondering what now.

Skin to scales.

The rumbling got louder and louder… and then, suddenly, everyone notice the ground cracked. And the crack is heading fast towards the troopers.

Human… into BEAST.

In an instant, the ground where the troopers were standing was engulfed in massive burst of liquid green mass. Those who were at the center of the burst didn't have time to scream as they vanished without a trace, leaving nothing but… goo. Those who get the fumes were screaming to their gods as they saw their flesh melted and fell off their also melting bones. Even the Cannon also melted into a puddle!

A monstrous roar of the unseen monstrosity coming from the suddenly appearing fissure drowned all their screams of pain and help. A second dose of this acidic burst followed and the half melted troopers were spared out of their misery into lifeless mounds of melted flesh.

Ka-chan couldn't move. Her mouth was opened aghast at the spectacle unfolding before her eyes. And then, as the fissure worsened, she saw the creature responsible of that brutality rose up from the hole, and after giving her but a single glance of his venomous green emerald monster eye, Ka-chan understood, and the monster that was Athrun Zala slither out of her view, roaring, no doubt visiting his unleashed horror to everything that gets in his way… that will be tantamount to this entire island fortress, she wager.

"Oh my God… He really was at his weakest…"

Ka-chan quickly get a grip of herself and returned to the task at hand. She turned around towards the door of the pantry and ripped it open, revealing a scared shitless Yoon Sefan, the now dead Head Warden… and a gigantic hole, steaming hot green, no doubt melted by that monster's acid.

"He's a… he's a… he's a…" Yoon was as catatonic as she ever gonna get.

"I know." Ka-chan nodded. "He's ANGRY."

The remaining troopers all over the island screamed and shouted for mercy that will never come from the horror that was trashing at their backyard at the moment. The monster has no mercy, and truly nightmare incarnate. He ripped their bodies with a single jaw snap, crushed dozens of them to a bloody pulp with each stomp, tore their bodies to shreds with a single tail swipe, pulverized them to oblivion even as he simply charged forward with his massive girth, crushing everything in his path. They fired some ship sinking cannons and battalion destroying rockets at him, but they might just as well throwing pebbles at his being. They tried to barricade the door with bracers big enough to stop a rampaging bull dead, but the door was melted through within seconds and the monster just smash through them like they were wet tissue. Entire battalions were melted wholesale when they were engulfed of the glowing acid burst.

It wasn't hard for Ka-chan and Yoon to keep track of the beast: just follow the destruction and the screams.

As Athrun climbed through floor after floor, the beast he had become continue to gnaw at his rationality, but the man kept his mental faculty. He remained sane, and painfully aware of what needs to be done. But there's no plan. No tactic. No genius or any strategy in his rampage. This is but the sheer brutality of an animal, this primordial brute force… THIS IS his bloodline limit! Finally, the monster burst through the surface of the island and rampaged. The upper portion of the Alliance secret installation had yet to be fully emptied and still half intact. It appears the volcano had yet to finish doing the job. But Athrun decided to might just as well be done with it. Within seconds, the entire base was either: melted, flattened to the ground, or just being brutally destroyed… whatever the case, the base is officially off the map. And then he caught sight of the pair of burly torturers, near the harbor… and all Hell breaks loose. What reason and rationality Athrun had been preserving was lost in a torrent of animalistic fury and the monster that was once Athrun Zala completely took over as he massacred and broke everything he laid his monstrous green eyes upon. The two Aides screamed in panic as they grabbed their guns and unload futile shots at the incoming monster. The Monster suck it up and seconds later, the two traitors came face to face with the said monster.

"Oh my god…"

"We're dead… so very, very dead!"

'You got that right!' Athrun roared and was about to end their miserable existence when a yell came along.

"ZALA!"

Athrun's rationality suddenly returned and he turned around to see who it was. It was Ka-chan and Yoon, carrying Andras' body. What's more… the mountain began to rumble again. The lava had finally remelted all the frozen magma down below and now the process of destruction had reached the critical stage. The ground cracked, lava spurt out and gas burst allover the place. It will happen any moment now. Suddenly, Mt. Danan erupted and belched black cloud to the sky, and the sky darkened as it began to rain ash.

Athrun saw all this and then he looked down at the 2 girls, looking up at his now towering gigantic figure. IT WON'T BE LONG NOW. His distorted voice boomed. THE MOUNTAIN WILL EXPLODE. NOTHING CAN STOP IT.

"What… what should we do?"

Athrun swished his head towards the scared shitless aides. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SHIPS!?

"He took'em! That little brat!"

"Djibrill's boy!"

DJIBRILL'S SON…? Athrun growled. Come to think of it, he didn't see him anywhere ever since the Core Sphere demonstration. At any rate, they've all been left to die.

"Zala? What now?"

Athrun frowned his monstrous slited eyes in deep thought, then he come up with an idea. It'll be his riskiest and by far craziest plan to date. COME! Athrun, still in his beast form swooped up Ka-chan and Yoon, after he told them to gently placed Andras on the ground with crossed arms. A leader will be entombed inside his beloved base. Athrun covered the two girls with his massive girth, creating a thick wall of flesh, cocooning the two. Even better, Kokuyou's shell seep out and covered his scaly skin with carapaces of extra armor.

"H… Hey! W… What about us!?" The two Aides gulped.

I WON'T KILL YOU, IN HONOR OF SERGEANT ANDRAS. Athrun stated. BUT I DON'T HAVE TO SAVE YOU. And that was his final word before his head slink back into protective cover.

The tremor of Mt. Danan reached its peak, and finally, after being delayed twice by Athrun, it inevitably explodes at full force.

The first that came, was the blinding light that envelop everything. It was a massive titanic explosion. The likes of which the world had never seen before and never seen again. A gigantic blast of fire that scorched the very heaven itself. The sky was charred ash black. And then following shortly are the noise. A noise so loud it rattles both heaven and earth and can been heard from thousands of miles away. Tsunami taller than mountains rippled all over the ocean with the doomed island at the center. And finally, as the sky darkens, magma rocks the size of small houses fell all over the place. And this continued for several hours…

All traces of the island of Krakatau, and whatever work that has been done inside it, were lost beneath the abyss of ocean forever…

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2 days had passed since then, and the sky still rains ash.

Jakarta was on the northern part of Java. Despite initial concern, it suffered little damage. The other part of Java was another story entirely. Many towns on the shorelines directly facing the Sunda Strait were wiped out, and very few survivors can be found. Still, a knight task force was still assembled too find them and give aid in any way possible.

"Kamu bisa dengar apa yang saya katakan?" (Can you hear what I'm saying?)

"Kamu bilang apa? Saya tidak bisa dengar apa-apa sejak Allah teriak di telinga saya waktu itu!" (What did you say? I can't hear anything since Allah yelled at my ears that time!) So the deaf local replied.

The Water Knight shook his head in sympathy for the said local. "Ceritanya sama. Gendang telinganya robek." (Same story. His eardrum's torn.) He spun his finger around his ears to make his point to the listening medic. "Suara itu luar biasa kencang. Padahal kita ada di Jakarta dan kita masih bisa mendengarnya." (That was an extraordinarily loud noise. We're in Jakarta and we can still hear it.)

Just then, a Knight came with a peculiar report. "Pak! Sebaiknya anda ikut saya. Kami barusan menemukan sesuatu yang aneh." (Sir! You better come with me. We just found something weird.)

"Apa yang kamu temukan nak?" (What did you find, boy?) The Water Knight followed the young Knight to the scene.

"Kami rasa… dilihat dari alur tanahnya… benda ini berasal dari pulau tersebut." (We think, based on the carvings on the ground… it came from the island.) The Knight explained as he led the way.

"Pulau… maksudmu pulau apa?" (The island… what island?)

"Pulau Krakatau pak." (The Krakatau Island sir.) The Knight finished his explanation by pointing at the object.

The Water Knight blinked in disbelief. It was ball. A charred ash black and smoking ball, half sunk on a crater made of glassed sand. The ball looked like it had crash landed, carving the ground in the process. Looking at the direction of the crashsite, the Water Knight realized his subordinate was right. That ball was launched from the Krakatau Island. "Mungkin cuma magma beku atau potongan tanah dari Krakatau. Pulau itu meledak kan?" (It could be some frozen magma or pieces of Krakatau itself. That island exploded, didn't it?)

"Pertama kami pikir juga begitu pak. Tapi… kami… ada mencolok-colok benda itu… dan itu… itu daging pak." (At first we thought so too. But… we… poked it… and it's… it's flesh, sir.)

"DAGING!?" (FLESH!?) The Water Knight glared at the knight in disbelief.

"Segosong arang… tapi itu daging pak. Satu. Bongkah. Daging. Yang. Sangat. Besar!" (As burnt as charcoal… but that's flesh sir. One. Really. Big. Ball. Of. Flesh!)

The knights approached the charred black ball of flesh. The water knight in particular, cautiously closed his distance to the said ball, until finally he can touch the ball, taping it several times. Realizing it was quite cool, he dared himself to close his head to the ball, and then, call it instinct, he pressed his ear on the ball. And then he heard noises. "Astaga naga… ada sesuatu di dalamnya! Potong bolanya. Tapi hati-hati!" (Bloody hell… there's something in it! Cut the ball open! But be careful!)

A Bladebane unsheathe his great sword, paused for a moment to prepare himself, and then, taking a deep breath, he lunged himself forward, preparing to cut the ball-

-until a fist punched the ball from the inside, sending a huge chunk of the flesh ball with the force of a cannonball straight into the said Bladebane's balls. (pun intended)

"OOOOOOOHHHHH!" The Bladebane was stopped on his tracks and grabbed hold of his winky, rolling on the ground screaming something about "Impoten", "Kebiri", and "Tak mungkin punya anak lagi"

"FINALLY! FRESH AIR! AAARGH!" Ka-chan screamed as she finally managed to break free. And then, she desperately began breaking other pieces of the said ball, creating a larger hole. And then at last, she crawled out of the ball, a few shades darker. Following, Yoon also walked out. But then she went back in and tried to pull something, or someone out. Ka-chan quickly turned around and helped Yoon. That someone turned out to be a stark naked and completely atrophied Athrun Zala.

The Knights were completely shocked and terrified as they've never seen anything like this. Well, how often you ran into a charred ball of flesh filled with people? Some of the Knights pulled out their swords. Ka-chan felt the hostility and assumed combat mode.

"Siapa kamu?" (Who are you?)

"Kamu in apa?" (What are you?)

Regrettably, Ka-chan didn't understand a single thing they say. "What? Foreign tongue?"

Luckily, the veteran Water knight understood. "Excuse me… but could you please identify yourself?"

Ka-chan looked at the water knight and she recognized the battle attire of the Zaft knights. "You guys are Zafties?"

'Zafties?' all knights looked at each other. The Water Knight merely nodded. "Yes. We are Zaft Knights."

"Oh, good." Ka-chan pointed at the stark naked Athrun. "He's one of you."

They all looked at the stark naked man and twitched in understandable disbelief.

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Epilogue:

Luckily, the Veteran Water Knight was an understanding man. He gave them plenty of food as he listened to Ka-chan and Yoon taking turns to explain their hard-to-believe story. And then Athrun finally came to and he too began explaining. By that point it was even simpler to take in.

"I can't believe it… An Alliance weapon manufacturing facility, right at our door!" The Water Knight grunted angrily. "Shit! Our scouts had really messed up. When I find them I'm gonna beat the shit out of their incompetent asses!"

"Relax. That base is no more. Mt. Danan had made sure of that." Athrun, wearing a rucksack cloak, pointed at the direction of the now inexistent Krakatau islands.

"Yeah. Them… and about 20-30,000 lives that lived on the shorelines…" The listeners gasped at such large number of casualties.

"It was a freak of nature, commander. There's nothing you can do. Plus, only nutcase and numskulls would build an underground fortress next to an active volcano."

"Yeah. I figured the Alliance was filled with those kinds of people. But thanks to those idiots testing weapons at the core of the volcano, things had worsened to such degree!" The Water Knight sighed. Then he looked around and realized he needed to get back on his job. His men had discovered more survivors. "Well, in the name of the Empire, I thank you for bringing down that infernal base. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to supervise my men for a while. I'll be back soon." The Water Knight saluted Athrun, who returned the salute, and then went on his way, leaving Athrun, Yoon, and Ka-chan to discuss their recent adventure. Ka-chan glared angrily at Athrun.

"What?"

"Using yourself as a meat shield to cover us!? Are you nuts? Even if your scales are covered in super strong super weapon alloy, if even you keep regenerating even as the volcano burnt out your outsides when it explodes… you could've been killed!"

"Hey it worked didn't it?" Athrun grinned weakly.

"That's not the point! We were trapped for 2 days… 2 FREAKIN days inside that cocoon. No light, and I almost thought no air… I had to punch that cocoon many times to break out… and you… you… you told me to eat your… orgh… Thanks to that, we're so disgusted we starved for 2 freakin days!"

Athrun bent down. "I'm sorry. I really couldn't think of any other way for us to survive that."

"You're crazy!"

"Almost as crazy as you?" Athrun smirked at Ka-chan.

Ka-chan glared angrily at athrun's smiling face, but in the end, she too relented and smiled. And they laughed. Yoon looked at the two and decided to stay quiet for now, not wanting to ruin the mood.

But then, the moment was spoiled when they began hearing knights screaming, pointing at the ocean. The trio also looked at the ocean, and then all the sudden, out of nowhere, one by one, enormous 6 ironclad Submarine Battleships rose up from the ocean. All of them bear the green Kusanagi chapter, Orb's Naval fleet.

"ORB!? Ngapain mereka di sini?" (Orb? What the hell are they doing here?)

And then, menacingly enough, the Marine Samurais of the Kusanagi fleet suddenly appeared all over the surface of every ship.

"W… What the hell!? They're not thinking of bombarding this place are they!?" Athrun panicked. He can guess why they come. They must've come for both Yoon and Ka-chan. But then he remembered what Ka-chan said about Orb's ruthless no leaks policy: they'll kill everyone they suspected of having in contact with Yoon, no matter how slight. But… there are plenty innocent civilian around here… they can't be seriously considering of shooting them all down… will they?

"Samurai-samurai brengsek itu mau berantem apa!?" (Are those shitty Samurais wanna pick a fight or something!?)

"SIAPKAN SENJATA!" (TO ARMS!)

Upon seeing the knights on the beach readied their weapons, the Marine Samurais of Orb's Green Kusanagi chapter also prepared to respond. They pulled out their twin katanas, connected it end on end, and then, holding them as one would hold onto a bow, they plucked something from both the top and bottom tips of their blades, and then connected them together at the center, creating the bowstring. Suddenly, the blades of their bows glowed green, and the string was also engulfed in green light. And then, their hand moved and pulled the string, as they did, green silhouette of an arrow made out of pure chakra emerged. The surfaces of the Orb Ships were dotted with such green lights, a sign that every samurai aboard the ship is ready to unleash a hailstorm of green death.

Athrun gaped and realized the situation is about to escalate a hell lot worse-

"Suiton Taijutsu…"

Athrun looked at Ka-chan, who's preparing to do something with her right leg.

"WAVE DIVIDER KICK!" And by that, she swung her leg…

Everyone, and by that it means everyone: Athrun, Zaft knights, Orb samurai, every fish, every plankton, every passerby birds, mother nature, holy father in heaven (including the writer and hopefully every reader out there) had their eyes popped out in shock.

…as the kick literally SPLIT the ocean to two for miles around, momentarily revealing all its aquatic life at the ocean bottom.

Needless to say the split ocean threw the disciplined Orb samurai army into complete chaos in an instant. The ocean was split right in the middle of the Orb fleet, dividing them. Once the split ocean returned back to normal and the samurai army regained their bearings, Ka-chan roared. "OI! YOU BUNCH OF SHIT FOR BRAINS FUCKTARDS OVER THERE! WHAT IN THE NAME OF SEVEN HELLS ARE YOU TRYING TO DO YOU NINCOMPOOPS!?"

Not even the sound of roaring waves can even compare to the volume of Ka-chan's screams. In fact, Athrun could've sworn that the force of her screams actually generated some waves on the ocean.

The Green samurais looked at each other in total confusion. "I'M WARNING YOU! IF YOU FIRE EVEN ONE BULLET, NO, EVEN A SINGLE ARROW HERE, I'M GONNA CATCH IT AND TOSS IT BACK RIGHT UP YOUR FAT ASSES, THEN I'M GONNA GET THERE AND SHITKICK YOU ALL PROPER TO THE WHOLE NEW WORLD OF HURT!" Her last scream was so loud; it actually created another ripple of shockwave that shook the ironclad ships. Some of the Samurais… Orb's infamous super soldiers, the destroyers of nations… completely scared shitless, they scurry back and hide behind any object they can find. Be it the roping or another samurai. Some actually, not willfully, jumped to the arms of the other samurai in horror at that last scream.

Seeing that the Samurais had learned their lesson, Ka-chan yelled again. "NOW GET SOME SHIP HERE! WE NEED A PICKUP!" Ka-chan stopped for a moment and think things through. "ON SECOND THOUGHT… BRING OUT EVERY LIFEBOAT YOU CAN SPARE! WE GOT A LOT OF WOUNDED AND REFUGEES OUT HERE!"

To the wonder and awe of everyone, that demand was fulfilled within seconds. Lifeboats were brought down with some Samurais on it. Ka-chan smiled in satisfaction and then she turned, with a kind smile of the Goddess on her lips, to the jaw dropped Water Knight. "Those Samurais will help you find more survivors. We'll let you take your men back… but… for these poor fellows…" Ka-chan pointed at the poor deaf man. "In Orb, we have a medical facility that can heal torn eardrums. Perhaps you can entrust those people to us? We will return them to you if they wish to."

The Water Knight suddenly found his tongue again. "Tentu saja… ulp… of course… uhh… terima kasih… umm… thank you. We really appreciate that."

All Zaft Knights in vicinity looked in awestruck at the girl who just shouted an army of Super Soldiers to submission. Athrun was no exception. "Ka-chan… who in the world are you?"

Ka-chan chuckled. "Sorry. Well I guess you can say… I had some… authority over the samurais. They've all learned better not to fuck with me."

"There's gotta be more than that!" Athrun balked incredulously.

"Well, it's a secret. If I tell you, I have to kill you." Ka-chan winked cutely.

Athrun blushed to his ears in an instant and was left completely thunderstruck.

In fact, he probably would've remained that way if Yoon didn't break the awkwardness by reminding everyone of a certain important detail. "Anooo…"

"Yeah?"

Yoon timidly brought out the last remaining Core Sphere. Ka-chan and Athrun blinked. They've almost forgotten all about it. The three quickly huddled together, entering into an intense discussion. "So… in the end we still haven't figured out which sphere was this, right?" Ka-chan started.

"It would be good if one of the two that went down with the tower was the sabotaged one…" Athrun rubbed the said Core Sphere gently.

"What about the other two, Zala? I mean, one was perfect, the other one…"

"-was unstable. The control panel was destroyed before I could stop the loading process… as the result, I think it has power, but it's unstable, but usable. However, there's also one of three chances that this is the sabotaged one."

"Is there no other way to see which is which?"

"One must be able to see the flaw on the welding… and only my friend can do that. And he's not an option." It is in times like this Athrun sorely missed Kira's incredible detail observation skills. "Otherwise, you'll never know until you use it."

"And by that time it might blew up in our faces…" Ka-chan gulped.

"What should we do then?" Yoon looked at the frowning Athrun.

Athrun thought long and hard, and then, he finally made a decision. "Could somebody give me a whole bunch of papers and pen?"

Moments later, a whole set of papers and a bottle of ink was made ready, along with a quill. Athrun took the quill and draw a transmutation circle at the top page of the paper. He clapped his hand, placed one hand on the papers, and then grabbed the ink bottle and just poured it. At the same time, Athrun began transmuting, and the ink flowed into the papers and formed writings… blueprints. 5 minutes later, Athrun had already turned the paper into a notebook and he handed it to Ka-chan. Ka-chan opened the notebook. Inside are mostly gibberish, but Yoon, a fellow engineer and having helped Athrun knew right away what it was.

"Zala-san… isn't this…?"

"Yes. The complete blueprint and technical knowhow on how to create another Core Sphere, including the chemical formula needed for its content. A thesis… to append on the previous thesis I gave to Morgenroete in Berlin. Everything was in my head, and I never wrote it down… until now." Athrun smiled kindly at Ka-chan and Yoon. "Give it to Erica Simmons. And you can take that Core Sphere as well. Use that as proof that it worked. It's not theoretical anymore. Tell them everything. Its power, its horror. That is… if you decide to."

"Me?" Ka-chan blinked as she pointed at herself.

"Yes. You've seen firsthand of its power. Decide for yourself if your country is ready for it. If you feel they're not ready… do whatever you like with that note. Destroy it. Burn it. And for that sphere… I suggest you toss that to the farthest volcano you can think off."

"But this is your life's work. This is everything you've worked for since you were 8 years old!"

"And I'm entrusting it… to you." Athrun clapped her hand on Ka-chan shoulders. "Your father was right about you. You are an idiot. First class idiot. But perhaps… it took an idiot like that to see right and wrong in a clear black and white. I can't do it. Because I can't help to always see the gray inbetween the black and white. That's why I trust this to you. Any moment you see something wrong… Don't hesitate to act on your conscious. Just like what you just did today." Athrun smiled.

And Ka-chan returned the smile. Just then, a lifeboat arrived at the shores and the Marine Samurai timidly waited at the boat, daring not to descend yet. But Ka-chan nodded to Yoon and she handed the notebook to Yoon. "Yoon get aboard, we're taking you home! AND IF ANY OF YOU FUKCTARDS HURT EVEN ONE STRAND OF HER HAIR, YA'LL GONNA BE SORRY!" And the samurais once again cowered in fear beneath stuffs.

Athrun chuckled. Ka-chan also chuckled and then she started running towards the boat. But halfway there, she remembered one last thing. "By the way… I just realized…" Ka-chan turned around. "I never get to hear your full name."

Athrun chuckled. "I never get to hear yours either."

Ka-chan smiled sweetly. "It's Cagalli."

Cagalli. So, Ka-chan. Athrun chuckled, finally understanding her peculiar nickname. "Athrun Zala."

"Athrun. I hope we'll see each other again! Bye, bye! Athrun!" Cagalli waved her hand happily.

"Yeah. I hope so too." Athrun waved his hand as well.

And then, the lifeboat set sail as soon as Cagalli went on board and went into one of the battleship. Other lifeboats, carrying other victims of the Krakatau eruption also went into other battleships and they set sail en-masse.

As it happened, the veteran Water Knight who overheard Athrun's name approached him slowly.

"So… you're Athrun Zala? THE Athrun Zala?" The veteran Water Knight looked at Athrun, who still longingly stare at the quickly disappearing submerging battleships which carried the unforgettable blond haired girl.

"Let me guess… you have an arrest warrant for me?"

The Water knight gulped and reluctantly nodded.

"Relax, I'm not going to resist, feel free to arrest me. Maybe contact Lord Klueze and so he can pick me up and put me in jail proper. But before that…"

"Yes?"

"You wouldn't happen to have anything to eat? I'm hungry."

"You're a zoan aren't you? How long they've kept you without food?"

"We've fasted for 5 days."

"Oh… crap…" There goes their weeks' worth of ration…

Meanwhile, the entire Zaft Knight task force was still stuck in that dumbstruck mode…

"Wow. Tendangan yang hebat…" (Wow. That is some kick…)

It was something they can never forget, one heck of a story for their children…

"Wow. Tenggorokan yang hebat…" (Wow. That is some throat…)

And their dumbstruck mode swiftly turned to lovestruck mode.

"Wow. Cewek yang hebat…" (Wow. That is some girl…)

"Mungkin kita harus memanggil cewek itu Kakak! (Maybe we should call her Nee-chan! No! Onee-sama!)

"SETUJUU! KAKAAAAK…! (AGREE! ONEE-SAMA!)" The still lovestruck knights called out to the horizon…

"KALIAN ORANG-ORANG GEBLEK KEMBALI KERJA SANA! (YOU IDIOTS GET BACK TO WORK!)"

And thus the legend of the screaming golden haired Goddess that brought down a whole army of super soldiers began…

One last minor detail…

After leaving the Sunda Strait, the Orb Fleet made a transit in Philippine harbor for some food and supplies. And…

"YOON! YOON! WHERE ARE YOU!?" the panicking Cagalli looked left and right searching for her Korean friend. The Marine Samurais, under the threat of eternal suffering and impotency from Cagalli also looked everywhere. But in the end, after giving Yoon's description to the harbor guard, the answer was:

"If you're talking about that absent minded looking Korean girl, yeah I saw her. She was there staring at a cat, but a dog showed up and all hell breaks loose." The harbor guard pointed at the chaotic situation at the harbor where bags were scattered everywhere, tickets littered the ground, decoration plants turned over, man hanging by the tree, wait, what!?

"Okay… so where is she?"

"Last I look, she ran into the ship's cargo hold, and then the ship left."

"The ship left… with her on board!?" The more Cagalli heard this, the more panicked she became. "What ship was that and where is it headed?"

"Umm… let me check…" The Harbor Guard checked the travel itinerary. "That was… for an Alliance base… in Shanghai, China."

"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!?"

In the cargo hold of the alliance ship…

Yoon just realized she got on a wrong ship… again…

"Ka-chaaaan!"

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And there you have it.

By the way, just a little explanation:

The event that happened in this arc is directly inspired by a real world event that happened in my home country of Indonesia. On 27th August 1883, Mount Danan, one of the Volcanoes in the Krakatau Island exploded with the force equivalent to 13,000 Hiroshima Nuclear bomb, instantly sinking 2/3rd of the entire island to the ocean. What's more, it produced the loudest noise in history. So loud that it can even be heard 3000 miles away and the effect of the explosion can be seen even on the surface of the planet. It was deemed the worst volcano disaster that had ever happened, killing over 30,000 people.

Lastly, seeing I'm Indonesian, I should at least make sure my own language had to show up even if just as a cameo…