(08: Shadows of Blood, Balls of Dust)

Murrue had stopped in the hangar to watch the five pilots mount up. It was strange, really, she knew the ship and the five suits intimately, yet the only one that truly belonged to the Earth Alliance right now was the ship. She knew that if Kira had an honest choice in the matter (ergo, his friends were not at hazard), he would have taken the Strike and been long gone. He hated the whole principle of the war and honestly wanted nothing to do with it, and unsurprisingly Murrue got the same impression from the four from ZAFT. Real soldiers never liked to fight, but they always did so when told for as long as told, because some thing just had to be done.

By request, the statue of Clef had been dropped off before the ship was to launch, as Clef felt that he could best mitigate the effects after the battle with Zagato if he was on the ground. Murrue wasn't entirely sure what he was getting at, but she had this feeling that whatever he spoke of would be less than pleasant. Four crewmembers had crab-walked his statue out of the bay, and Mokona had remained with the statue. Murrue had said her goodbye to the enigmatic stoned Mage, and returned to the ship just as the pilots were coming out of the ready room.

The first unit active was the Blitz, as Nicol activated and unlocked the OS on his unit he ran a full systems check to make sure he was battle ready. Aegis activated next, Athrun had probably the most complex encryption and lock on the unit. It wasn't all that surprising to Murrue that Kira and Athrun knew each other so well; war does strange things to otherwise good people. The Strike came active next, armed with the IWSP pack that gave it almost the same maneuverability as the Aile Strike and more than four times the firepower. The Duel and Buster were the last to activate respectively, Yzak and Dearka having the farthest to walk to their machines when they got to the ship. Already hot and armed were the Skygrasper units, as they had been sitting ready with Launcher Striker packs that gave them rather large amounts of firepower to use on targets. Mu gave her a wave from the cockpit of Skygrasper 01, which she returned in a fashion that she knew was unprofessional, then saluted them both. Mu and Tolle had to be the two craziest of persons on the ship right now, since those fighters could not have armor. One good hit and there would be little of them left to bury. Murrue had to savagely suppress her innate desire to tell them to hang up the pilot suits, especially in Mu's case, since she knew they would need every ounce of firepower on site that could be mustered, and that meant the Skygraspers were out there as well.

The journey to the bridge was one of conflicting feelings. She wanted to, she did not want to. She wanted to defeat Zagato, she did not want the time of (relative) peace to end. She wanted to go home, she did not really want to go back to the Earth Alliance ethos of trying to exterminate all Coordinators. The dichotomy of her feelings was starting to catch up to her. On the other hand, she felt as if she had a duty to the people of Cephiro, and delaying that would cost lives that she did not want on her conscience at the end of the day. By the time she reached the doors to the bridge, her soul was tentatively settled on the matter; the morality of the issue won out over the practicality.

"Kuzzey, 1MC and radio, please."

"Up," he replies after entering the appropriate commands.

"Attention all hands, this is Captain Ramius. The final battle in the war for Cephiro is upon us. All Three Rune Gods stand with us as we now go to confront Zagato and settle this matter. This warship will be joining them in the battle. All hands are to assume level one battlestations until further notice. Be aware and ready for sudden impacts and hard maneuvering at all times. Munitions Technicians are to be on standby in the hangar for fast reloading of all allied units as necessary. We do not know what or how many of Zagato's minions remain after eliminating many of them of them on our travels, but he will try his best to sink us. Be prepared for anything. Wish us all luck; today we fight to save one world, tomorrow we may be in our own. " There was no need for the internal speakers; Murrue could hear the cheers of the crew through the bulkheads, echoing throughout the ship. "Helm, all ahead full, bring her up slow. Hangar, prepare Duel and IWSP Strike for launch."

As Newman brought her up slow, about a percent a second, Murrue watched on the internal ship's monitors as the Duel connected to the starboard catapult and prepared.

"Conn, sensors, I have three contacts coming out of the volcano's mouth," Sai reports.

"On screen." All eyes were on the primary screen; "It's Rayearth."

"And Windam and Selesce, as well." Natarle notes, just barely able to see it from her position.

"Now, now, Newman, don't fall behind, clear?" Murrue says in a slightly teasing fashion. Despite the necessity of the issues, she was enjoying it nonetheless. It helped when you really believed in the cause you fought for.

"Roger that." He doubles the pace of advancement on the throttles, now going up two percent every second. It was not long before they were actually gaining on the Rune Gods, despite the size of the ship. Another two minutes and the ship was almost level with them, if below in altitude slightly.

Mind if we hitch a ride? Murrue could hear it mentally, but probably so could a chunk of the crew, if not all of them..

"Miriallia, if you would, please ask them to find landing spots on the foredeck and area."

Welcome Aboard, Rune Gods of Cephiro. The Captain requests you take positions on the forward half of the ship's deck.

"Thank you, Miriallia," Murrue says as the three Rune Gods slowly drop altitude until they were close to landing. Rayeartlh landed right in the center of the foredeck; Windam perched behind the port-side Gottfried cannons, Selesce behind the Starboard Gottfried array. "Mir, if you would, can you ask them if they know how far to the objective?"

Hikaru, do you know how far to the objective?

A pause of several seconds, likely as they asked among themselves about it. There is a fortress near the edge of the sky that Zagato is holding the Pillar in. That is our destination. The reply was actually from Fuu, likely through her Rune God. It was likely also heard by the whole crew.

"Great. So much for our Skygraspers. Miriallia, can you have Tolle and Mu come to the bridge please? No sense having them on standby in craft we can't use for this battle."

That was an order she was all too willing to relay: "Crewman Koenig, Commander La Flaga, please stand down the Skygraspers and report to the bridge."

It took them five minutes, but they finally made it up to the bridge. "What's happening, Captain?" Mu asks after he enters.

"We're headed out of your operation ceiling for the Skygraspers. Mu, I want you on the second weapons panel, Tolle on the second Helm station."

"Yes, ma'am," Miriallia could tell that Tolle was not pleased with the change of plans. She was, however, she didn't like Tolle standing in harm's way.

"Can do." If anything, Mu was a very capable manual shot with the Gottfried cannons, which actually might make the job easier.

"Conn, Sensors, I have a large unidentified object dead ahead, range 1250, estimate arrive at object in forty minutes."

"Sensors, can you get us a visual?"

You are seeing the crystal castle that High priest Zagato used to try and contain the Princess, the voice had to be one of the Rune Gods. Thine foes are not to be taken lightly. Be wary.

"Damn straight we shall be," Athrun replies over the radio.

"It looks...sadly beautiful, actually," Miriallia says as Chandratta gets a visual of it on the main screen.

"Well, we have to get in there to get to the Princess, so..." Newman notes.

"Well, keep the speed up and keep your eyes open. Sensors, keep the sweep radar active. It may give our position away, but I want to see them coming first."

"Aye, Captain," Sai says as he adjusts some settings on the radar. "Oh, crap, Captain, I have a contact in the airspace near the crystal formation, classifying...unknown, gross mass estimate 75 tons. Visual in a moment..." The main camera was slaved to the radar tracking system, which gave them a clear view of the target.

"Is that...a Rune God of some type?" Murrue asks.

It is the High Priest, Zagato's Rune God.

"Great. Well, so much for not having to deal with him again. Miriallia, please begin launching our units."

"Strike, Duel, prepare to launch. We have one contact, an enemy Rune God, at the structure ahead."

"Ready," Kira replies immediately.

"Standing by," Yzak notes with a hint of determination to tone.

"Launch!" The sound of the Catapults translates through the structure of the ship. "Blitz, Aegis, you're next."

"Conn, Sensors, enemy has launched from the crystal structure, confirmed headed toward us!"

"Miriallia, please ask the Magic Knights to move out. Weapons, break out Gottfrieds and Valiants, load all tubes with Sledgehammers, set Igelstellungs to auto-track mode, set helldarts to auto-fire on special auto." Special Auto was a setting that allowed the ship's computer to fire when it figured it would have a high probability of hitting. When the Igelstellungs were set in that mode, they intercepted incoming missiles as priority, then tracked in on enemy mobile forces and land forces.

Magic Knights, please begin.

We shall, Hikaru replies.

"Enemy unit is out of range for all weapons at this time, but closing rapidly. Fifteen seconds."

"The Duel has engaged the enemy." In the distance, they could see the first green streaks of beam rifle.

-x-x-x-

(A/N: The way I see it, if Zagato is supposed to be so badass, he deserves a larger repertoire of spells to execute being so. Therefore, he's going to toss some weird and powerful ones into the mix to really shake up the crew. I will try my best to keep everything straight and describe effects, of course.).

Yzak had to admit that the enemy had a hell of a combination of defensive and offensive skills. Too bad he was grossly outnumbered, he could only keep it going for so long.

After dodging another sword-shockwave attack, Yzak fired a pair of beam attacks as the Strike did the same, forcing the enemy to maintain a heavy shield and thus not attack the Mobile Suits or Rune Gods. Yzak keeps the pressure on, bouncing a pair of Shiva slugs off his shield as Hikaru joins the fray with her Ruby Lightning spell. Kira had next, using the 35mm Machine Gun on the IWSP pack's shield to continually rattle slugs off the enemy's defensive shield.

"Even now, you are helpless against my onslaught." Strangely enough, the transmission was not telepathic, it came across their radios. The enemy had surged forward and dispelled the shield moments before he swung in against Yzak. Sword met shield as Yzak stowed his beam rifle and drew his beam saber. The enemy had backed off from the initial clash, and parried Yzak's first thrust expertly, especially for someone who was purported to not have much along the way of close-quarter skills. Yzak followed up with a pair of rapid thrusts, each driven aside with a meter to spare before contacting the enemy.

"Helpless? It's your ass that's doing all the defending!" Yzak shouts on the radio as he hammers inward, deliberately forcing a clash with Zagato that he followed up by kicking into the side of the enemy Rune God. Zagato's machine went flying out of control and toward the planet below. To capitalize on the moment, Nicol had moved in on him with Blitz, which was a Gundam designed to both sneak up on enemies and fight them in close quarters. The combination of first and second-degree attack chain caught Zagato unawares and before he could prepare a proper defense he had taken two hits from the Blitz's beam saber that had nicked the surface of the Rune God's armor. The translated pain from the two minor gouges was enough to distract him, however, and Kira had the next step in the dance with a pair of 120mm cannon slugs from his IWSP pack, both of which hit hard enough to cause pain to the pilot (Zagato).

"Fire Spike!" The attack was impressive, a pointed beam of fire leaping from his aimed sword at the Strike, though Kira was more than fast enough to get his Gundam out of the way of the oncoming attack. For effect, he put a salvo of 35mm Gattling down the way as he ducked under the beam, and the shots went true into the enemy unit, causing him to go off-balance but not causing any notable damage.

"Chew on this, suckhole!" Dearka shouts as he connects his two cannons into the sniper rifle configuration and takes aim; the shot befalls his shield but also the sheer translated impact knocked him away from Dearka and into Hikaru, who was waiting for the enemy with Rayearth and sword at the ready. The net effect of that clash was inconclusive, the two swords grinding down to the hilts and neither able to get a good position on the other. After ten seconds of shoving at each other, the two broke apart and began jockeying for position again.

"Your ass is mine!" Yzak shouts as he sights the tango up, first with a shot of beam rifle, then two taps of Shiva, then two of his missiles and another shot of beam rifle. All from a range of two kilometers. The result was ineffective, but when Zagato charged in on the Duel Pilot he took the hit with his shield, instead shooting him at point-blank with the beam rifle. Even a direct hit caused damage, but not enough to really begin slowing him down. Grapneled, Yzak aimed the Shiva down and put a pair into the chest of the Rune God foe, the first slug caroming off the chest armor, the second one hit dead and translated a lot of impact to the enemy; to Zagato, it was as if someone had just mule-kicked him without the benefit of armor.

"Dark--"

"Yzak, clear!" Athrun shouts; Yzak jets straight downward, toward the planet, and when Zagato's view centers on the new threat axis he fins himself staring down something that looked like a four-leg crab with a small mouth. He never really knew what hit him, even after the beam of the Scylla multi-phase energy cannon tore a chunk off his left shoulder and left bicep.

"Lightning Assault!" As his sword was held high, a series of lightning streaks emanated from the tip of the sword and struck the units nearest, being Umi's Rune God, the Blitz, and the Aegis, the latter just after transforming to Gundam form. Umi took the brunt of the translated damage, but the Rune God was still good to go. The Blitz took it in the shield, instantly frying its beam rifle/beam saber combo and causing one of the Lancer Darts to fire off toward the planet. The Aegis took the hit in the shield as well, and the translated energy immediately destroyed the left arm beam saber and caused the whole arm to seize up. Transforming properly would now be impossible without ejecting that arm.

"Winds of Admonishment!" Fuu shouts, and Windam manages to ensnare Zagato's Rune God with them. Nicol was counting on something...

Zagato broke free of the entrapment spell easily, of course. What he was not expecting, however, was less than a second after he was freed, he took a pair of hits unlike any prior. The Lancer Darts carried by the Blitz are rare weapons, relying both on penetration and explosion power. The first missile hit him at a glance, but caused him to spin clockwise and directly into the path of the second. The direct missile embedded itself into the Rune God's left thigh and blew, instantly blowing the leg clear off his Rune God. The tortured screech that accompanied that monumental event was unlike one ever heard by them, even worse than that of Miguel or Olor being killed in battle against the Archangel.

"Archangel, I'm coming in for a new shield."

"Roger that, Blitz. Port side," Miriallia says. Of all things beyond keeping the orders straight in the melee ahead of the ship, she also had to properly handle incoming and outgoing units as they reloaded, refueled, and rearmed.

"My...my leg...how..." Inside the cockpit, his leg was bleeding from where the Lancer Dart had penetrated the Rune God, the translation from one to the other was that severe. "I will...I must...I can't..."

"This is Archangel, we are within range. Standby." Murrue looks to Chandratta. "Fire Valiants."

"Aye." The two Linear Guns spoke, barking a total of four slugs that left the characteristic rifle-groove-swirl behind a glowing yellow projectile that terminated in Zagato's shield. The first one hit hard enough to completely break his shield and send him flying up and away from the unit, the other three sailed into the crystal prison and blew chunks out of the gorgeous surface. Dearka had the follow up, firing a group of four missiles at the wildly gyrating Rune God before it could stabilize. All four hit, though the damage caused was not spectacular in the face of their foe.

"I...I will...I will send you all to hell! Dark Matter!" Unlike the others, this spell was semi-guided and started chasing down Dearka, who was fast enough to flee away from it as the blue-black ball kept seeking his ass, or, more appropriately his Gundam. Yzak had the answer to it, a single shot of his railgun detonated the ball as Umi pressed in on Zagato to try and distract him. The ball detonated away from Dearka, but not far enough away that his Gundam was unharmed. The blast propelled it into a nearby floating rock, causing Dearka's machine to crater on said rock with a helluva impact.

"Dearka? Man, speak to me?" Yzak asks over the radio.

"I'll live, I think," Dearka says after a moment. "My machine can still move, but I'm slowly losing hydraulic pressure. Ten minutes, tops, and I'll be stiff as a board."

"I'm sure that would impress some chick somewhere, but that doesn't do shit for us right now," Yzak retorts testily. "Now, for this maggot..."

Kira began in first, firing an all-weapons barrage into Zagato to get his attention, and when Zagato moved in on the Strike Yzak made his next move, getting in behind him and hitting him with the 175mm Grenade Launcher under the barrel of his beam rifle. The grenade flew straight to and blew spectacularly, driving Zagato downward toward the planet and causing him to widely miss Kira. He followed up with a pair of slashes from the straight-blade 9.7-meter anti-ship swords carried on the IWSP pack, one to the center of his back, the other on his right shoulder, both hits gouging the armor on the Rune God foe but did little more.

"Nicol here, I'm back in action!" The Blitz had been cat-shot to return it to the fray, and he was just arriving after the initial burst of thrust faded. He had a whole new Trikeros set, including another three Lancer Darts.

Aegis went in against the enemy this time, using his beam saber in his right arm to counter Zagato's blade. It was a designed setup, however, that Nicol immediately took to as he noticed what was happening. Gleipnir went out on line and latched onto Zagato's most important defensive / offensive tool, before he could even realize what was happening. Nicol pulled the sword completely from his hand and threw it away and down, leaving Zagato disarmed but not completely helpless. "Hikaru! Do it!" Nicol shouts on the radio.

Still rather shocked that he had been so callously disarmed, Zagato had a bare quarter-second to see his doom coming; Hikaru had charged him down at full speed, her sword set to impale the enemy. The blade pierced his Rune god from front to back as Aegis just barely cleared away at the right time. The blade's strike was left of center in the chest of his Rune God and penetrated straight through; there was no doubt that the tango was down.

He had the shocker of the day, at the last: "Princess...please...be free..." A moment thereafter, his Rune God shred violently as the energy used to create it vented, in something reminiscent of an explosion but without the massive fireball.

"Holy shit, it's over."

Be cautious, the next foe you will face will be unlike any other you can imagine. The mental voice was broadcast, that of the Rune God Selesce.

"What? It's not over?" Yzak immediately asks. "This is bullshit."

This is the true duty for which you were summoned, warriors from another world. It will not be pleasant.

"I guess Zagato was just a warm-up. Well, let's get it on. We don't have all week to screw around," Athrun says deadpan.

"This is Buster, I'm returning to the ship for recharge and hydro repair and refill."

"Roger that, Buster. Mechanics are waiting on the port side."

"Duel Reporting, I'm coming in for a reload and Recharge."

"Duel, you are cleared on the starboard side. Aegis, what is your power status?" Miriallia sounded like she was trying hard to keep everything straight.

"Aegis reporting, I'm at 60 percent power. Kira?"

"Strike reporting, I'm at 75 percent but almost empty on IWSP ammo. I'm coming in to swap out to Launcher Strike, over."

"Roger, Strike, you are authorized on the Starboard catapult behind Duel, over."

"Magic Knights, this is Archangel Command. Do you require any rest or maintenance?"

The answer took seconds. "No, we are fine."

Dearka had landed, followed shortly by the Duel, and both immediately moved to their assigned gantries to be repaired, reloaded, and recharged. Kira landed a minute later and positioned to have his Striker Pack changed out. The pack mechanism immediately removed the IWSP pack and installed the Launcher pack, though Kira had left the shield from the IWSP still attached; he had a feeling he would need it in the upcoming engagement.

"How do we get into that crystal fortress?" Yzak asks as he pirates Athrun's feed from his main camera, as the whole group slowly approached the fortress.

"Looks kinda like an urchin if you ask me."

"Nobody asked you, Dearka," though the sharp retort was from both Yzak and Miriallia, Dearka thought it was rather amusing.

"Archangel to all units, we're going to try and blow you an entry into the inside of the fortress using the Gottfrieds, Valiants, and missile launchers. Stand by."

"Why not use the Positron Cannons?"

"Duh, Jerk-wei. We don't want to kill the Princess, we're trying to rescue her..." Yzak replies to Dearka's rather poorly considered question.

"Part of me wonders when our lives became something out of a video game script," Athrun notes to nobody in particular, just on open radio channels.

"After thinking long and hard about this, I don't think it's supposed to fit our definition of 'makes sense', you know?" Sai notes in response.

"Hey, if you want to think about it as being stuck in someone else's game, it could be worse. At least this one seems like we've already won and we we're headed for the credits," Yzak notes with a hint of cheer to his voice.

"In the past five minutes, have you somehow forgotten that Selesce thinks this is going to be the hardest one of all?" Yzak did not reply at all.

"All units, stand clear, Archangel is firing now," Murrue notes as she gives the signal to the weapons officers. The first volley went downrange, in a measured barrage that should have just barely...

The weapons hit at the base of one of the spikes of crystal and caused it to detach from the main body of the crystal. With that accomplished, the next barrage was targeted on the next spire over, enlarging the rent that led to the interior of the area. "Excellent, Captain, just about two more of those spikes and we can get in," Athrun passes on to the Captain. The Valiants were retasked along with Korinthos missiles onto the next spire in that area. Two Linear Gun slugs and four missiles shattered that spire and the next one over, creating a gap more than easy for a Mobile Suit to cross to get inside.

"We can get in, Captain!"

"Rune Gods, Aegis, Blitz, Strike, enter when ready."

"Aye, Captain," Athrun notes.

"You know, I'm not going to look forward to getting back to trying to sink the Archangel," Nicol notes.

"Who said you had to?" Kira asks as the Launcher Strike closes up with them.

"You know, after seeing the Curse of the Archangel in action, I don't think I want to try again, either. How many times did something attack the ship and fail miserably? Including us, of course."

Nicol begins ticking the times off on his hand, then passes to his right hand, then back to his left... "Uh, well over forty." More than a dozen of those had been in Cephiro, mostly monsters that thought they were better than the Archangel. Oops. The only one that caused serious damage to the Archangel without killing it was Zagato, and he was in little floating bits right now, somewhere behind and above the Archangel. It still haunted them, however, his last words to a Princess that he had kidnapped...

"I still can't forgive the Naturals for all they've done to us Coordinators, but he's right. Attacking this ship is asking for your death," Yzak says as he positions himself on the starboard-side catapult.

"Guys, I think we got a problem here," Dearka notes.

"What? An enemy?"

"Well, sort of. If Zagato was supposed to be kidnapping the Princess, why did he tell her to be free as his last words to her?"

"Huh? What the fuck are you on?" Yzak asks somewhere between disgusted and pissed.

"Think about it, Yzak. If you kidnapped Flay, you wouldn't tell her to be free if Kira shot you, right?"

"Disgusting. Why would I want to kidnap her?"

"Damnit, Yzak, think about the question, not the actors!" Dearka shouts loud enough to make Miriallia instinctively pull her headphones off for a moment.

"All right, all right, you win, stop yelling already." Yzak thinks back to the question. "Okay, yeah, you're right, I'd probably die cursing Kira's name, not telling Flay to be free. Not that she isn't already to begin with, but..."

A pause of two seconds: "I can't believe you just said that over the radio."

Miriallia had the next: "Yzak, you're hopeless. Completely, disgustingly hopeless."

"Damn straight." Natarle says just barely loud enough for her headset microphone to pick up.

"See, looks like you've just wrecked any chance for a decent relationship between now and when you're thirty." This time, Miriallia actually thought Dearka's comment was amusing.

"Oh, like I actually give a shit. Now, for the rest of us that don't have a wild imagination like you, Elsman, what the hell are you insinuating?"

"I think the thing between Zagato and Emeraude was consensual, not a kidnapping."

"Okay, what the fuck are you smoking, and why ain't you sharing?" Yzak asks crassly.

As a partial confirmation of what Dearka believed, the three Rune Gods and the three Gundams had fled the way they entered the crystal structure; the whole place blows radially in something akin to a very large bomb going off. After the blinding flash and particulate subsided, near where the center of the crystal was now stood something else, what appeared to be a Rune God. "Damnit, I hate it when I'm right."

"What? Then what the fuck's going on?" Yzak's voice now held a lot of desperation, confusion. "Whose Rune God is that?"

"It's Princess Emeraude! Except, she ain't anywhere near as innocent as when she summoned us," Fuu notes as her Rune God takes up position forward and above the Archangel.

"Damn, I should have seen this coming a time zone away," Dearka notes dejectedly.

"What?" Athrun asks, now confused.

"We just killed her boy toy. Guess who's next?" Much as confirmation, she immediately tracked in on Zagato's sword and landed next to it, pulling it clear of the rock that Nicol had inadvertently slung it into.

"Please, please tell me your joking. We have to fight the person we're supposed to save now?" Yzak now sounded completely despaired of his new fate.

"No, actually I don't think we were ever intended to save her," Dearka notes rather coldly. "I get this feeling we've been very skillfully manipulated into a position where we have to fight her, because we pissed her off and she ain't going to take 'sorry' for an answer. By a certain someone telling us that we had to stop the 'troublemaker Zagato'." Dearka's rendition of a 'certain someone' was actually quite accurate, despite the disparity in their voices.

"That shit doesn't matter now, looks like she's found a new toy and wants to use it on us," Athrun says as he changes his Gundam's orientation to put his shield between her and him.

"Well, I'll fight anyone I have to to get home, but this is well past absurd," Yzak notes.

"You said it," Kuzzey says just barely loud enough to be picked up by the bridge microphones.

"Duel, you are cleared to launch. Buster, what's your status?" Miriallia asks after being prompted to get things going by Natarle.

"Buster reporting, the techs are closing up my access panels now, reloaded and recharged. I'll be ready to launch in fifteen seconds."

"You got five. Here she comes!" Athrun shouts as he braces for the inevitable...

Hikaru had actually stood between the Gundams and the oncoming foe, and took the brunt of the impact as the two Rune Gods collided. Nicol had the follow-up, first firing out the Gleipnir to distract her, then getting in close with Trikeros, with his beam saber active, to 'test the waters' and see what she really was worth in the melee (seeing as prior to today, she was (in theory) a completely nonviolent person). They clashed four times, all four inconclusive and ineffective in the battle, as Hikaru and Umi vied for position to continue the melee.

"Nicol, pull back! Our Gundams' ain't gonna be worth shit against her!" Athrun shouts. "Kira, Yzak, we need to try and suppress her at range, give her too much to try and do so the Magic Knights can stop her!"

"I read that!" Dearka shouts as his Gundam was cat-shot into the fray. "We got one chance to do this, might as well do it right! Yzak, follow me in!"

"Damn straight!"

The girls retreated, having been stood off by the enemy Rune God, Kira took action next, using the hyper impulse cannon Agni to barrage the enemy. Out of five shots he hit four times, each hammering Emeraude's shield like nothing else. Mu had decided to weigh in on the matter, and having proven himself adept with manual targeting with the Gottfrieds before, did so again this time. The two beams hammered her shield so hard it ceased to be. Dearka was in position for what he was planning now, and with his beam cannon and gun launcher combined into sniper configuration, took one shot at Emeraude; the single shot struck her Rune God in the hip and caused it to double over just as Yzak was positioned for his run. He fired two beams, two shots of rail gun, all five missiles, another beam, a dozen rounds of CIWS, and finally the 175mm Grenade Launcher. From two kilometers all the shots hit, though at the end of the barrage he figured they were now officially out of luck.

"Look out!" Kira rammed the Duel aside roughly and just barely managed to get the IWSP shield into place to defend against her attack. For what 'defending' was worth, in the end; the charged shockwave attack hammered his shield, destroyed it, and hit his left arm hard enough that it quit functioning properly, over and above the Phase Shift protection. In that instant, Kira's mind went clear as he realized what he had to do and how to go about it (1).

The impact had drove the Strike away from the Rune God, but had little bearing on his other arm, which is how he was carrying the Agni right now. The cannon came up and centered on her head, and he fired one quick blast before he lost aimpoint when he hammered his thrusters. The Rune God took the full brunt of the shot and actually seemed to be affected by it, just as Kira closed in on it with his 120mm Anti-ship Vulcan firing into her chest. Up close, he continued firing all three of his Vulcans, then both missile launchers attached to the weapons pod for the Launcher Strike, and finally his knives. The right-side knife came out first and was roughly driven into the chest of the Rune God, just under the left breast, and Kira used all his thrusters to grind it into her as far as his Gundam could achieve. That accomplished, he reached across his Gundam to the left knife and just barely managed to pull it with the right hand. This one he spiked downward into the right shoulder, where the Rune God had less 'armor'; the net result is it penetrated far easier, and would definitely make using her sword arm difficult, but not impossible. As he backed off he fired another blast of Agni, this time into the area where the first knife was. The knife was easily obliterated by the impulse cannon, which meant that the cannon blast was already partway into the Rune God from the knife's wound, and after the dust settled everyone could tell that the Rune God was bleeding from that wound. Rather profusely bleeding, actually.

"Damn you!" The tortured screech caused everyone's heart to flutter for a moment, and might have disheartened some except for her obvious murderous purpose. Despite the knife in her right shoulder the sword came up and she accelerated toward Kira in a blindingly fast manner.

"Kira, No!" Athrun's mind went blank, his body running on some form of berserk autopilot to try to save his long-time friend from some murderous semi-goddess of another world (2).

Athrun hammered his thrusters toward a point he mentally calculated would be an impact zone just before her sword would reach Kira. When they hit it was tremendously violent, though the impact stunned the Rune God more than it did Athrun. That accomplished, Athrun drove the barrel of his beam rifle into the Rune God's bleeding wound and fired three shots, each of which was already inside the enemy. After each shot came a rather tortured screech of pain, and it hurt Athrun's heart to have to inflict pain on one whose only crime was love, but duty was duty and this is something he had to do to get home. He silently figured that he could always shit-kick Clef in the afterlife for this atrocity. A fourth shot on a different angle into the wound and he roughly kicked the Rune God away.

The enemy had righted herself rather feebly, as if the battle was taking a severe toll on her. She did center on a new target, however, being the Rune God Windam, and immediately but weakly began charging Fuu down. Nicol saw this and immediately knew what was happening. "Fuu, she's after you! Move it!" Nicol shouts as he hammers it on an intercept course, his Beam Saber out and ready to do some operating. Still, he was about three seconds too late in his estimation, as Emeraude got to Fuu first, who managed to drive her sword outside an immediately fatal circle centered on Windam's heart, but the rapier-style sword ended up going straight through the left shoulder of Fuu's Rune God, and elicited a pained shout from Fuu, which severely pissed off Nicol. It was his Gundam that should be taking the hits, not a living being that was linked soul-to-soul with a schoolgirl that Nicol figured was too nice to be hip-deep in this shit. He zoned out, his whole being moving on autopilot on a set of actions that he figured he could slow down the battle and prevent any more injury to Fuu (3).

As he closes on the Rune God he fires Gleipnir again into the sword, but this time he does not try to disarm his foe. Instead, he fast-drags her toward him, and when close he grips the blade with both hand and rocket anchor, rendering the sword unusable against him or Fuu. His next actions were possible only because they were in a state of minimal gravity and could operate as if they were in zero-G conditions. With her sword still gripped, he fires his thrusters clockwise, so he was hanging upside down in front of her, still holding her sword and with his left arm free. The eyes of his Gundam flash as he drives his shield into her midriff, instantly centering the Lancer Darts over the prior wound. He pulls the trigger rather deliberately, before she could even begin to react. As each of the Lancer Darts fires into her they continues firing their jets; the contact fuse had not been armed yet. Nicol looses the sword as the third Dart enters the wound, and with all three having penetrated at different angles she was spinning rather fast, in a rendition of some demonic carnival ride designed to make the occupant vomit. This maintained for five seconds as the motors burned down to where they activated the fuses on the explosive charges, and then the missiles blew in a chain reaction that literally blew a chunk off the Rune God.

"Nicol...thank you," Fuu finds the heart to say.

"You all right?" He replies, firing a pair of beams at the severely wounded Rune God that he could sense more than knew was still dangerous.

"I am, except for my shoulder."

"We need to finish her. We're running out of options here," Athrun notes coldly. "Another minute or two at this rate, our units will be down."

"Umi, Fuu, we have an option. Guys, keep her distracted for thirty seconds while we prepare an attack!" Hikaru says as she approaches Fuu.

"I Won't Let You!" Emeraude shouts as she fires a charged shockwave at the three Rune Gods that were now clustered fairly close. The attack hit them all, but the effect was something that nobody expected. After the flash from the attack subsided, it appeared as if the three Rune Gods had just merged into one super-being that was physically larger than the Gundams by a hell of a margin, and it combined elements of all three Rune Gods into one form. If ever a case of Nicol being scared shitless, this was it, even despite being on their side.

"I'm sorry!" The voice was Hikaru's, as it drew a sword of pure energy and charged down the enemy Rune God. The enemy tried to center her sword to impale the Rune Gods, but she didn't get it around in time for the collision. The bolt of energy went straight through the centerline of the enemy Rune God's chest. The battle was over.

Nicol didn't need to see them, he could sense the three Magic Knights were crying. They, like the rest of the team, knew that Emeraude's only sin in this whole endeavor was falling in love. "This sucks," Nicol airs for what his thoughts boiled down to.

Thank you, Magic Knights. This was not the voice of the pissed-off Emeraude, but the one that had called them forth to help save Cephiro. Nicol had a fleeting glimpse of the two in each other's arms, Emeraude and Zagato, before a bright flash similar to how they had first came unto this world.

-x-x-x-

"Man, that was good. What the hell did I do wrong this time?" Yzak asks nobody in particular.

"Deja moo," Dearka replies after a few seconds.

"Huh? What the hell does that mean?"

"I get the feeling I've heard all this bullshit before." (4)

"Damn straight," Natarle replies.

When Yzak stood his Gundam up, for every direction he could see nothing more than sand and rock crags. "Are we out in the middle of some frigging desert or something?" As he continued to observe, he could see a canyon in the distance, but that was it. Nothing but rock and desert.

"I—what? This isn't Tokyo Tower!" From Umi, whose Rune God had just stood up. "It's...a lifeless desert. Great."

"Well, everyone back to the ship, we'll figure out what this month's quest is after we've all rested, okay?" Murrue notes, slightly heated of temper of her own right. The operations in Cephiro had taken more than three weeks, almost a complete month, and their supplies for the Gundams were dwindling, not to mention their patience.

Author's Chapter Afterword:

I will admit that I wrote the final battles with a little less hazard of them being killed. This is because where they are now is going to be nice and brutal for them. On that subject, if you know what a stravag is, you can probably guess where they are now (hint: read the title).

Yeah. I'm going to leave the rest up to your imagination for now. Just know that the hazard of someone getting killed just about tripled, and after all this writing I'm not in the mood to pull punches. Stay tuned, peeps.

Now, as to the battle, correlating a show which is particularly based in Magic (which by definition is grossly fantastic) to one that is based in science (mostly) leaves a lot of gap for who pwnz who. This time, I felt as if the Gundam / MK team had the advantage in both tactics and net power, so that is how I played it. Next time, they may not be so lucky, though I will admit that next time will be a ways off for them, because they have the next hurdle to deal with, and if you know where the hurdle is (from above) then you can guess it isn't going to be a small one.

This is probably publicly overdue, but to those whom I have received reviews from, both named and anon, you have my thanks for taking the time to review and contribute to my motivation to get this on. I can but hope that my next set of chapters are as entertaining and insightful as the last. Be warned, the hints (ha!) of relationships begun below are just starting to bud and blossom. Will Umi chose Yzak? Who will help her? Are Nicol and Fuu really that close, or not? Many mysteries, so little time...

Next up: The unit finds out that where they are isn't anywhere near where they want to be, and the 'locals' are a lot less friendly than those in Cephiro ever thought about being.

Footnotes:

(1): Kira went SEED here. Be afraid. (If he normally went SEED, it would be in either Aile Strike or Freedom, not often with a different weapon pack. An interesting premise, no?)

(2): Athrun's turn to go SEED.

(3): Yes, you guessed right, Nicol went SEED. Injuring the one he cares for is a major mistake that he's gonna use on Emeraude for every point of value he can squeeze out of it, especially since she's already taken a helluva beating to begin with. Don't. Piss. The. Quiet. Guy. Off.

(4): I don't have even part of a clue where I picked this quote up, but it's been years since I've heard or seen it, so...not to mention, I figured it would go well with what happened.