Author Note One

Usual reminder about canon scenes

"Regular speech"

'Thought'

"Soma/Hallelujah speech"

Low Orbital Station

Hecury looked at the image of the satellite weapon on the display. The sheer scale of his mistake weighed down on him. He began to give out orders, trying to maintain control of the situation, "Attention all hands! Begin evacuating the low orbital station! Get the citizens moved out of the elevator faster. Don't forget to tell the ground forces what we are doing."

Soldiers moved out of the control room to help speed up the evacuation, saluting him. Hercury balled his fist in frustration, "I was being too naïve. The moment I took these poor people hostage, the Federation considered them dissidents. They know too much already."

Sergei put a hand on his friend's shoulder, "You couldn't have known they had a weapon like that. It wasn't public knowledge."

Hercury shook the hand off of him, guilt in his voice, "The Federation is willing to kill 60,000 people to keep the crimes of the A-Laws from going public to maintain their political dominance. And I just showed the government who's willing to betray them."

Sergei reflected on those words. 'I knew the Federation was willing to overlook a lot, but to be willing to risk millions of people in order to ensure things stay secret? What madness is that?!'

Medical Bay of the Ptolemy

Setsuna groggily woke up, rubbing his eyes. He saw that he was on the medical bed, the healing mechanism currently ongoing. He had been briefly woken up earlier by Anew to tell him they were going to start the regeneration procedure, which he agreed to after asking where Feldt had gone. He had quickly fallen asleep again as that started.

His arm was feeling better, but he didn't know if it was from the rest or the regeneration. Setsuna looked around for anyone in the medbay. He saw no one around. 'They must be back on duty, even Feldt.' He sighed at that. This would have been a good spot for a talk. He did manage to spot his pilot suit hanging on the wall. However his thoughts changed after hearing something over the ship's PA speakers.

Over the speakers he heard Sumeragi mention they had another Memento Mori. His eyes narrowed. 'They built two of them! But how can we destroy it?' He thought for a second and then realized what it was. 'There is only one thing that would be effective against it now.' Turning off the regeneration and lowering the container around him, he got himself out of the bed, moving over to his pilot suit to put it back on. He winced slightly putting it back over his bad shoulder. 'Sumeragi won't be happy with me, but it's what needs to get done.' He made his way out of the medical bay and walked towards the elevator to the hanger.

As he opened the door to the antechamber, he saw a sight that surprised him. Standing in the middle of it was Feldt, who was wearing a pilot's outfit. It was similar to the rest of the pilots, with dark pink on the outside and black on the inside. The one difference he noticed was the boots were all black instead of matching the outside color of the suit. It was also noticeably distracting to the raven-haired pilot as it highlighted her curves. She looked at him nervously, her tone shy, "How does it look?"

Setsuna's mouth was dry, unable to come up with words, cheeks pink. The pink-haired woman saw his blush and looked down at the ground, a bit embarrassed. 'I think he likes it.' Setsuna recovered his wits and replied with a slight stutter, "You look great. But why are you here?"

She looked back up at him, eyes nervous but determined, "When I heard the news about the second Memento Mori, I knew you would want to use the 00 Raiser. You need someone to pilot the 0 Raiser to use the trans-am Raiser."

Setsuna looked at her in wonder, "You want to pilot with me?"

She nodded her head, voice full of determination and affection, "As long as you are piloting the 00 Raiser, you will need someone in the 0 Raiser. As long as I am around, you don't have to be alone." Setsuna could hear the resolve in her tone.

He replied in a grateful tone, "I would want no one else by my side." She looked at him, eyes shining with happiness. He smiled at the raw emotion on display, his voice confident, "Let's get going. We have a station to destroy."

She nodded her head and Setsuna walked past her, noticing that she wasn't moving. He turned around to face her, wondering what she was doing, seeing that she was looking down at the ground again. He walked up to her, grabbing one of her hands and asked, "Are you ok?" 'What's he doing?'

She looked up at him, heart racing from the contact and her nervousness at what she wanted to do. With a nervous yet resolute tone, she spoke, "Setsuna, I like you. I really like you. I don't know if you feel the same way, but I just wanted to get it off my chest. I tried to tell you before, but I couldn't bring myself to say it. I don't mind if you don't-"

She was interrupted by Setsuna putting a hand under her chin and brought his lips down on hers, intertwining their linked hands. Her eyes widened for a second before she relaxed, closing her eyes as she enjoyed the sensation of Setsuna kissing her. She rested her hand on his chest, feeling his heartbeat.

The kiss broke after several seconds, both of them flustered by the event. Feldt opened her eyes, hoping that what just happened wasn't a dream. What she saw was Setsuna looking down at her with happiness and affection. Her cheeks were bright pink. He spoke in a soft voice, warm smile on his face "I like you too Feldt."

She looked at him in happiness and shock, words tumbling out of her mouth as her mind was racing at a million miles an hour, "I didn't expect…I'd hoped that…For how long?" 'He likes me! He really likes me!'

He pulled her in close, wrapping his other arm around her lower back, heart racing due to how close she was, "Since the Memento Mori battle. The first battle, at least. At least that's when I realized it. It was probably before even that, I just couldn't admit it to myself. What about you?"

She gathered her thoughts, calming her mind as she wrapped her free arm around Setsuna. Setsuna looked at her patiently, waiting for a response. 'She's probably a bit overloaded right now.' He knew he would have had a hard time saying what he needed to say, so he wasn't completely sure how he would have told her. And when she confessed her feelings to him, he felt no doubts about kissing her, freeing him from the worry about saying the wrong thing. And it was a like a wave of relief and joy going through him when they kissed. A weight had been partially lifted off his soul.

After several seconds of reorganizing her thoughts, she spoke in a quiet and nervous tone, "I thought I maybe liked you after you comforted me when Marie first showed up, but it really came after that look we shared when Anew first showed up. I was curious what you thought of her and was feeling jealous, so when you gave me that smile, I realized that I really did like you."

He squeezed their intertwined hand, "I only had eyes for you. No one else." 'I am hers as long as she will have me.'

She felt rising emotions as tears threatened to come out. She wiped her eyes and asked in a curious tone, "So what now? This is a first for me." It was another new thing thrown into her life. First piloting, then a relationship. 'I want to make this work! I want this happiness!"

Setsuna replied, tone more even, "First we deal with this station." His tone lightened up, "After we deal with that, we can talk about us as a couple." Feldt smiled at the mention of "us". He was just as serious as her about this.

Nodding, she replied determined, "Then let's destroy this station. Do you want to tell Sumeragi your idea or me?"

"I will. Just get to the 0 Raiser."

She gave him a nervous smile, "Understood." She gave him a kiss on the cheek before walking to the elevator to access Hanger 3. She mentally congratulated herself. 'I can't believe I just did that!' He watched her walk away, happiness flowing through him. He had showed her his feelings and she reciprocated. Marina had been right. Now all he had to do was not mess this up.

Bridge of the Ptolemy

Sumeragi was having difficulty coming up with a plan to deal with this situation. Last time they were in space and could attack it easier, not to say it was easy even then. But now they were in the atmosphere and just getting in space would require trans-am. 'And the other gundams are already assisting the Katharon and coup forces.' She rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration. Suddenly a communication opened up in front of her, showing Setsuna ready to pilot. He spoke tersely, "Feldt and I will use the 00 Raiser."

Sumeragi looked at him in worry, "But you are still injured!" The last time someone injured had been allowed to fight, Neil had died fighting. 'I don't want to see that happen again.'

Setsuna spoke evenly and resolutely, "The 00 Raiser is the only chance that we have at stopping that weapon. But you already know that."

She replied quietly, "The trans-am Raiser." She sighed, knowing Setsuna was right. They couldn't allow this weapon to fire again, especially with the potential loss of millions and millions of people on the line.

Setsuna looked at her expectantly, "I need a mission plan." Sumergai gave him a nod, dropping the communication. 'Now I just have to trust that those two can get this done.' She couldn't help but worry immensely for the both of them. She was sending them up there without support. Even with Setsuna in the 00 Raiser, that doesn't guarantee that there weren't any defenses in place. 'Please stay safe you two.'

Airspace around the Tower

The 0 Raiser and the 00 launcher from the ship, having been angled to face into space. For Setsuna this was routine, but for Feldt, this was only her second launch, so she was still feeling nervous. She gripped the controls, focusing on maintaining her course. With her new pilot suit, the G's felt less intense, but that didn't calm down the nervousness coursing through her. 'Relax. This is your job now. You have to remain calm.' Taking some deep breaths, she neared the 00, calling out, "0 Raiser, docking mode!"

The two machines combined together, power flowing between the two of them. With the power gained from the 0 Raiser, they rocketed up into space, heading towards the station. Setsuna saw Feldt open up a communication on his display, her looking curious, "Now that I'm your copilot, what should I be doing? What do you need me to do?"

Setsuna replied evenly, "I need you to keep an eye on sensors and other systems. Keep me informed of things like trans-am time limits and where enemies are. I'll focus on fighting."

She nodded, smiling at Setsuna, "Understood. How is your wound feeling?"

His expression softened, smiling at her, "It's fine for now. Don't worry about me."

The two continued to rise into low orbit, Setsuna focused on piloting and Feldt working on making sure the Raiser system was fully functional. They only hoped that they could make it in time before the weapon fired.

Low Orbital Station

The control room was empty except for Sergei and Hercury, having been evacuated. Hercury was slumped in a chair. He spoke in a defeated voice, "All soldiers and civilians have been evacuated. Sergei, get out of here."

Sergei asked in a subdued voice, "What about you?"

"I am the commander. It was my operation. I will stay till the end. Whatever happens after this, make sure future generations know abou-"

He was suddenly grabbed by his coat collar by Sergei, who's expression was angry looking at his old friend, "This isn't the right way to atone! You are a soldier, and a soldier always protects the citizens! Save as many people as possible! Then you can die."

Hercury looked down, shame towards his defeated attitude coming to the forefront. He was so focused on his own failures, he didn't think about the people he was protecting. 'Thank you, Sergei. Now we just have to get out of here.'

Out of the corner of his eye, Sergei saw the weapon charging up on the monitors. His eyes widened and he yelled urgently, "It's preparing to fire! We have to get out of here!" Sergei ran out of the room, not even looking at his old friend. Hercury sat there, thinking for another couple seconds, then got up and followed his old friend to the hangers.

With the 00 Raiser

Feldt called out to Setsuna, "The station is in range! Should I start the trans-am Raiser?"

Setsuna replied confidently, "Do it." He faced the wings so the tips were aimed at the station, ready to cut through the center of the Memento Mori.

Activating the system, Feldt saw the meter counting up, "Thirty seconds!" Looking at the sensors, she spotted the mobile armor that had been a problem for them in battles past. With an urgent tone, she spoke to Setsuna, "Setsuna, it's the Empruss." They had received intel that the machine was called the Empruss as they had traveled to the tower from an unknown agent.

Setsuna spotted the Empruss approaching the 00 Raiser and dodge out of the way as it blasted at the 00 Raiser. Setsuna returned fire, his shots missing as the machine dodged out of the way. Neither suit was able to hit the other, pink and orange blasts shooting across space, but as Setsuna tried to pass below the mobile armor and take a shot at it, the two claws on the machine shot out, attaching themselves to the 00. Waves of electricity shot through the wire, causing both Feldt and Setsuna to cry out in pain.

Wincing in pain, Feldt opened one eye and saw the count rise to one hundred. In a pained voice, she called out to Setsuna, "It's ready!"

Activating the trans-am, a beam of pink energy shot in a straight line out of the wings of the 0 Raiser. The mobile armor put up a GN field, but the beam went right through it, carving the machine in half and continuing up into space. It passed right above the station, barely missing it.

Now free of the electricity, Setsuna began to reposition the 00 facing further down. He could feel the resistance and energy of the beam fighting back against it, but the 00 Raiser brought the beam futher and further down through the station, explosions rippling through areas that were being hit. As the beam neared the bottom of the station, the energy from the 00 Raiser began to dissipate. Feldt spoke again, "Trans-am energy depleted! System needs to recharge!" 'I didn't realize it would drain our power this fast.' She then noticed to her horror the weapon was about to fire, "It's still operational!"

Setsuna spoke desperately and quietly, "Don't do it. Don't do it." Yet despite his wish, he knew there would be no hesitation on the A-Laws part to fire the weapon.

A pale beam of energy shot out of the bottom of the station, glancing the side of the elevator. Feldt put up a zoomed in picture of what was happening on Setsuna's screen. What they saw was the elevator beginning to collapse, the panels falling off and descending into the atmosphere. A structure that took humanity years to build was being destroyed in a matter of mere seconds. The two sat in shock for a second before Setsuna began to move back down to Earth. They needed to stop these panels from causing damage. Setsuna sent a quick comm to Feldt, "Hang on! The descent might be rough!"

Near the Africa Tower

Louise watched with trepidation and worry. The battle between the gundams, rebel forces. and regular army had suddenly stopped, a massive smoke cloud forming around the tower after a shining light appeared for a second. 'What was that?' She then noticed debris falling from the atmosphere. 'What could that be?' The sheer scale of things falling wasn't something that just happened. She then remembered one of the engineering lessons from college. It talked about how the orbital elevators would auto purge the shell to try to reduce the damage done to it. But it wasn't supposed to be done at the scale she was seeing. Something must have done extensive damage to cause that much of the elevator to purge. And the horror of the sheer scale of damage that the elevator debris could do hit her. 'Everyone in the area will be hit!' People began running in the streets, trying to find cover from the incoming debris. She stood behind the glass façade of a hotel, looking at what was going on from the inside of the building along with a large group of other people.

All of the mobile suits seemed paralyzed by the sheer amount of debris coming down on them. However, she did notice the gundams immediately jump into action, shooting and destroying the panels and debris that were descending on the planet. 'Why are the gundams the only ones helping here? Where are the A-Laws and regular forces?' The news made it seem like the gundams had been shown to be the enemy of peace and stability, but they were the first people to jump in and defend the people on the ground. What added to her horror was despite the effort the gundams were putting up, debris began falling past them, moving too fast for them to hit. She saw a crowd of people underneath the growing shadow of a piece, knowing they had little time to move. The people began to try to flee, but just when she thought it would be too late, a burst of weapon fire destroyed it.

Noticing it wasn't an energy blast, she saw one of the Katharon mobile suits with a smoking cannon. 'First the gundams, then the rebels?' The rest of the Katharon and coup mobile suits then began to add their firepower in taking down the orbital elevator debris. There began to be a noticeable decrease in the amount of debris that was headed towards the city. 'What are the regular forces doing? They are right here!' Louise winced as she saw a mobile suit get a piece of debris through the cockpit. Even if they were against the Federation, no one deserved to die like that. The blonde then sighed in relief when she saw that the regular forces began to assist in destroying the debris. Louise felt a little less worry. With the amount of mobile suits dealing with the debris, the city would be safe hopefully. She felt a tear come to her eye. She had not seen people come together like this in her entire life. Everyone was fighting to defend the innocent people living near the Africa tower. There was still that one nagging question on the forefront of her mind. 'Where are the A-Laws?'

Bridge of the A-Laws Carrier

Kati Mannequin sat in her chair, stewing. High command had told her to sit back and not do anything. Yet the gundams, rebels and even the regular forces were helping. The A-Laws were supposed to keep the peace and stability of this world, yet they caused this event to happen. 'Not under my watch.'

Anger in her voice, she yelled out, "All A-Laws mobile suits, you are to assist in the destruction of descending debris!"

One of the bridge crew spoke up, "But Colonel, command says we are not to get involved till they say."

Kati glared at the member of the bridge that spoke out, "I am in charge here! Are you willing to let millions of people die because of orders?!" The crew member shook their head and focused back on their job. The mobile suits deployed quickly, heading to the battlefield.

Kati glared up into space, hoping that the people on the Memento Mori suffered. When she first joined the A-Laws, she didn't know how far they were willing to go, thinking they were shady but wanted peace for the masses. But the more she served with them, the more she realized they didn't care about the people. They only cared about maintaining order. She signed up to protect the people and the gundams presented the biggest threat to the world, but after seeing the Memento Mori fire on the elevator and being ordered to sit and watch as innocent people would die, she realized the A-Laws were a bigger threat than the gundams and Celestial Being were.

'The coup forces had the right idea. They only lacked information.' She had the inklings of a plan after this event ended, but for now she had to make sure that the millions of people in the blast zone were safe. 'The A-Laws will regret all of their actions.'

Near the Tower

Louise finally saw the red trails of the A-Laws suits arriving on the battlefield. 'Why did it take them so long? Louise's faith in the A-Laws had been steadily dwindling since the party. The backer that she met had set off warning bells and Saji, who had been at Proud which the A-Laws attacked, said the organization were not to be trusted. This, compounded with the gundams not acting like they did five years previous had raised her suspicions about what the media was saying about Celestial Being. She even regretted promising to give them minor support at the party, but she didn't know any better at the time. They would use even that little amount of money to develop more weapons that would hurt and kill innocents. Ribbons said he would not use them for military pursuits, but it seems like he was lying. The A-Laws had shown no focus on helping outside hunting down the gundams.

Now that she felt safe in the city, Louise began to think. She had no idea what happened to the hostages, but she had a sinking feeling about that. And what could damage the elevator that significantly that it caused it to collapse? 'It would make no sense for the rebels to do it. It was a thing that kept them safe. Most people wouldn't mess with the elevator.' It had to be someone with access to a large amount of firepower. Those panels weren't easy to destroy, especially when they were fully intact on the elevator. She was suspicious of the A-Laws, but she had no proof one way or the other. 'The gundams were the first on the scene, but they had never showed any interest in directly attacking the towers and are even destroying the debris.' She needed more information before she could or would do anything. And not information directly given by the government.

Medical Bay of the Ptolemy

After the elevator collapse had effectively ended, most of the gundams headed back to the ship. They had been at it for hours trying to stop the debris and by the evening, the combined forces of humanity had stopped it. The only gundams that stayed out were the Gun Archer and Arios, the former wanting to meet someone and Allelujah stayed out to keep Marie safe. Everyone was tired and drained after fighting for so long, so they went to their rooms to rest. Feldt had escorted Setsuna back to the medical bay after changing back into their uniform, his wound not too bad at this moment.

The pink-haired girl had checked out the wound and recleaned it, Setsuna not reacting in pain as he sat on the bed. Seeing he was good for now, Feldt told him to lie down and told him Sumeragi would want him to stay here to keep him under observation. He agreed reluctantly.

Feldt looked at him curiously, sitting in a chair next to the bed, "What happened after the first Memento Mori battle? How did you get that wound?"

Setsuna went over his experiences after the battle, talking about how he had met Ribbons, had to fight Ali after getting shot. She also had a brief surge of jealousy at Nena hitting on Setsuna, before she remembered that he came back for her.

She laid her hand on his, squeezing lightly, "You certainly went through a lot. How do you feel about what Ribbons told you?"

He gave her a bitter smile, "It hurt realizing why I was picked, but after seeing the original pilot, I knew I couldn't let him have the 00. I am still its pilot and no one like him should pilot a gundam."

She intertwined their fingers, giving him a warm smile, "Well I'm happy you were chosen as a gundam meister. If he hadn't recommended you, we wouldn't have met each other."

He nodded at that, blushing, "No, we wouldn't." 'If my path led me to Feldt, then maybe it wasn't all for no reason.'

He continued his story, telling her how he was found by Katharon and given medical attention, meeting Marina again in the process. And how talked with her about Feldt.

Feldt perked up at hearing her name be mentioned, "What did she tell you?" The pink-haired woman was curious what would convince Setsuna to be so active about pursuing a relationship.

He sighed, the princess's words coming back , "She told me that I deserved to be happy and if you were that for me, then I should go for it, especially if it was something that both of us wanted." Feldt frowned slightly, remembering Setsuna's past as a child soldier. 'Marina is right. He's been through so much and deserves happiness. We deserve to be happy.' The raven-haired man then remembered another thing Marina said, "She also told me to tell you that you have her blessing."

Feldt blushed brightly at that, realizing Marina had given her approval to date Setsuna. She looked away in embarrassment, "Well if I see her again, I have to thank her for her advice to you. I don't think I've been this happy in a long time or seen you this happy." She then turned back to look at him and gave him a peck on the lips. She continued, a confused smile gracing her lips, "I am new to relationships, so what do we do next? We can't exactly go on dates."

Setsuna gave her a similar expression, "I'm new to this too. Let's figure this out one day at a time."

She nodded, happy both of them were on the same page. She could see him beginning to nod off, "Do you want me to stay?"

In a tired, but happy tone, he replied, "I wouldn't complain."

She pulled the chair closer and once again, laid her head on his shoulder. She knew she would be sore from her position when she woke up, but it was worth it to be close to him. Both of them fell asleep quickly, relaxed smiles on both of their faces and hands still intertwined.

Both of them were unaware that they had been watched for a good chunk of that conversation. Sumeragi stood at a nearby corner, having heard everything after the pink-haired woman ask about Ribbons. She even saw Feldt kiss Setsuna. 'Congratulations Feldt. Now hold onto that boy as long as you can.' Secondary to this new relationship, Sumeragi took note of the mention of a Ribbons. 'When Setsuna wakes up, he's going to need to brief me on everything that happened to him, especially this Ribbons character. This was clearly data Veda had kept hidden from us.' She headed to her own room, leaving the couple to rest peacefully as the ship found a safe place to rest before they headed into space again, taking advantage of the chaos.

Battlefield around the Africa Tower

The sun was setting as Sergei surveyed the damage caused by the collapse. Wrecks of mobile suits and debris were scattered all over the ground, a grim memorial to the destruction caused by the A-Laws. 'This...is terrible. What was this all for? Was the Federation and A-Laws that desperate to remain in control?'

He spotted Hercury's GN-X floating over the battlefield. Flying up to him, Sergei called out in a relieved voice, "Hercruy! You made it!"

Gripping his control's tightly, Hercury spoke in a guilt-ridden tone, "Unbelievable! What happened here is something that can't be taken back." Just as he finished saying that, a red energy blast shot right through Hercury's suit, exploding right in front of Sergei. Sergei yelled out in shock and horror watching his old friend die so unceremoniously. They had been through so much together over the years and he dies from a surprise attack in a peaceful area?

He looked up to see the attacker and was surprised to see Soma's Ahead. 'Soma isn't with the A-Laws, so who could be piloting her mobile suit?'

The suit came charging in, blasting at the Tieren and pulling out it's beam saber. Sergei heard his son speak in a chilling tone, "So you are the traitor. You caused this." Sergei was disturbed by how unemotional his son sounded. Normally he was angry and emotive, but now he sounded like…a drone or something similar. It reminded him of how Soma used to talk when he first met her.

Sergei brought up his beam saber to counter Andrei's attack, both of their blades clashing. Sergei called out desperately, "Andrei! Why did you kill Hercury?!"

"He was a traitor who betrayed the Federation. If he hadn't staged the coup, none of this would have happened. And you were with him. You must be a traitor as well."

"Andrei, wait a-" He was interrupted by Andrei pushing against his suit, forcing it closer to the ground. Sergei grit his teeth as his suit was easily overpowered. 'Please Andrei! Listen! Your mother wouldn't like this!'

Andrei began to bash his saber against the Tierien's, anger slowly rising in his voice, "You say you follow orders, getting my mother killed, but then you join the coup? That makes you a hypocrite!"

Sergei was taken aback by his son's words. He hadn't realized how much Holly's death had gotten to him. 'I'm so sorry Andrei. I should have been there. But I didn't know how.' The old soldier was so focused on this thought that he hadn't realized he left himself open. Unfortunately for Sergei, that opening was immediately taken advantage of by Andrei, who stabbed his beam saber through the core of the suit, barely missing the cockpit. A console in the cockpit exploded, leaving Sergei wounded and bleeding.

As Sergei stared up at the Ahead, he could see memories passing by. Him and Holly at their wedding with Hercury. The first time he had seen Andrei as a new father. The memorial service after Holly's death. Sitting in a church, lost after not knowing what to do with himself after his wife's death. Him and Andrei's worsening relationship. And lastly meeting Soma for the first time, not knowing how much of an impact she would have on him.

He snapped back to reality, weakly looking up at the Ahead with his son in it. He pushed the suit away from his own, knowing it was about to explode. With his last breath, he weakly said, "I'm so sorry Andrei."

Andrei glared at the Tierien. 'He apologizes now, instead of all those years ago? It's too late father. I hope mom doesn't forgive you.'

Andrei wordlessly watched as his father's suit plummet to the ground. He felt one traitorous tear run down his face, but squashed that. His father was not only a traitor, but someone who had caused the death of the most important person in his life. 'Good riddance.'

Unbeknownst to him, a gundam had gotten close enough to watch what happened. Marie had spotted Sergei in the battle and had planned to talk with him after everything had settled. But instead, Marie watched helplessly in the Gun Archer as Sergei's suit fell to the ground and exploded, looking like just another casualty of the tower collapse. Inside her mind, she felt Soma go silent, then suddenly explode out in intense anger and grief, overwhelming Marie. No words were exchanged between the two and Marie was once again shoved into the back of their combined mind, left to watch helplessly as Soma took control.

Soma charged like a berserker at the Ahead, firing shot after shot at it. Andrei, knowing he was out of particles, beat a hasty retreat. Soma tried to chase him, but she noticed her particle count was also low, let out a cry of anger and frustration as she watched as the man who killed her mentor and father figure escaped

'How could Andrei kill him?! He had a father and everything I could have wanted and yet he chose to kill him?! Why did the Colonel deserve that?! Andrei will pay for that!' Tears began streaming down her face. Tears of grief, anger and frustration blended together, leaving Soma an emotional mess.

The Arios caught up with her, just seeing the Gun Archer hovering there. He called out in worry and curiosity, "Marie, are you ok?"

Soma's voice spoke out in grief-stricken anger, "It's not Marie! It's Soma! And Andrei will pay for what he did!"

Author Note Two

So it finally happened! I hope you guys liked how I got our main couple together. This was actually my third version of how it could have happened. The first was at when Feldt gave him the flower, which I stuck with for a while before I realized it would be interesting to see them as a couple rather than just as a last minute hook up. The next plan was in one of the upcoming two chapters, where you will see where it would obviously be. But after I made Feldt a pilot and did all that teasing about her wanting to tell him, it made more sense to have it where it was. I was so excited to get to this part.

And if you are reading this after I finished this story, then this is a good stopping point if you are binging. Also go to sleep if its 3am.

The next two chapters are actually all original content, so I hope you enjoy! See you guys at the next chapter and I hope you guys are enjoying it!

Also as a bonus, I commissioned a piece of art of Pilot Feldt. Link will be below.

(slash) gallery (slash) 9cQipVM

Editor Comment of the chapter:

In reference to my non use of the name of the Empruss: use its fucking name, and if you keep doing this in any chapters going forward from this chapter i will refuse to edit it until you send me a version where you changed it.