The clouds cloaked the wasteland in a deep shade of grey as raindrops pounded the rubble below. Norea sat inside the Thorn and gazed down, her breath misting in the fetid air. Bodies littered the destroyed Dawn of Fold base, torn and bloodied like wilted petals on a slaughtered meadow.
The attack must have come swiftly after her warning, or had the message never made it through? A million thoughts raced through her mind, and it all came to a screeching halt after discovering the remains of Naji, Olcott, and everyone who she considered to be her entire world lay as lifeless as those puppets which Sophie pretended to be her family.
She had always been prepared to have Death as a regular visitor ever since that day she was chosen to be the pilot of that cursed machine. Everyone had, but no matter how hard she tried to convince herself that this was their supposed fate as terrorists, that it was destined to happen, the dread and despair of having whatever was left of her pitiful little world robbed of her in an instant was still far too much for her to keep at bay, as she wailed to the indifferent sky.
A lament torn from the depths of her soul reverberated through the withered land of the dead, and the anguish and rage and helplessness bellowed out of her until all that remained was a brittle husk and the bitter wish for vengeance. They were gone. In the space between heartbeats, the flicker of Sophie and everyone's familiar faces dissolved, leaving her utterly and irrevocably alone, trapped in a cursed mobile suit surrounded by indelible reminders of all she had lost.
"Well, this is definitely an eyesore."
Norea looked up to the source of an irritating voice all too familiar. Shadowing the clouds above, the Gundam Pharact descended from the skies and landed next to the Thorn. Norea raised her beam rifle against the Pharact, fingers ready to pull the trigger.
"Elan Ceres…You've been tailing me ever since I arrived on this planet. Have you come to gloat? Or are you the one they sent to end my life?" Norea, despite having just screamed her lungs out, asked using her normal monotonic voice.
"It's business alright, but no, I'm not here under orders to kill you," Elan replied in his usual carefree tone. "The Lfrith Ur is damaged beyond repair, so your Gundam is the only remaining witness to Aerial's battle data when it reaches score six. Once I get access to Thorn's battle-log, I'll be gone. I just need you to unlock them for me using your biometrics."
"And what makes you think I would do that? So that you can go and please your bosses sitting all comfy back at Peil headquarters in space? Shame you came all this way for nothing."
Norea didn't have time to deal with him, not right now. With every Dawn of Fold member either missing or dead, there was no way she could have orchestrated another attack in space, but she would be damned if she didn't try taking out as many of those Spacian scums as possible before she drew her last breath. The Benerit group's earth division headquarter is positioned in the Northern hemisphere...Heavily guarded for sure, making it a perfect target for her last hoorah. Taking out a couple dozen of those damned Spacians with her to hell sure sounded like a tempting offer, no doubt it would make for a pretty good gift for Sophie and the others when she meets them down there.
"Leaving already?" Elan asked as Norea turned Thorn around and prepared for takeoff.
"Goodbye Elan Ceres. If that really is a Gundam you pilot, I will see you in hell soon enough, but before that..."
As she launched her Gundam into the sky, ready to wreak havoc one last time, a blinding blue beam zoomed past the side of her Gundam, the shot barely grazing a thruster. Reflexively, she spun around to face the source of the attack. There the Pharact stood tall, hands holding a combined beam rifle still glowing with a faint blue light.
"It's true that I'm not here to kill you, but you'd be delusional if you think I'm letting you go without leaving behind Thorn's data. That was your warning shot," the pilot said grimly over the intercom, his normal nonchalant tone now nowhere to be seen.
In that moment, her annoyance with him transformed into rage.
"Permet Score three."
Thorn's chest piece grew bright red, as Norea unleashed a barrage of attacks on the mobile suit below. But the Pharact was too fast, effortlessly weaving and dodging through the fire to avoid each shot. It was then made clear to her that even if she were to ignore him and escape, the Pharact would still catch up with her in no time.
Her fury mounted as her opponent taunted her with his skill and daring. Even without raising his score, Elan maneuvered the Pharact around her attacks with such grace and ease. She had always thought of this pilot as merely an irritation, but now he had become something far worse, even frightening perhaps.
"Benerit group's headquarters here on earth, you go there, and that's a one-way trip straight to hell. Any chance Thorn might've had on unlocking the Aerial's mystery dies with you. You and I both know that."
"Who said that's where I was headed? And you can go tell those Peil wenches that I would rather die before I let any of them get their way. If I die, I die, simple as that." She retorted as Thorn rained down a hail of bullets once again.
"Knowing you, that's the only place you are going to be heading for. Your last grand act of terrorism in retaliation to the Spacian you hate oh so much."
"Don't pretend like you know anything about me!" Norea gritted her teeth and increased the intensity of her attacks, with each shot coming closer to a hit than the last. Though her body screamed to give in under the relentless onslaught of the data storm, she refused to fall, not yet, not until she wiped that self-satisfied smirk off his insufferable face. Not until she extracted her vengeance, however bitter or empty it might prove to be.
"Permet score…four!"