Disclaimer: Mobile Fighter G Gundam is owned by Bandai and Sunrise. I just write about it in my spare time.

On the Dark Side
Chapter 6: Nightmare in Silver! Tame the Darkness, Rain!

Author's Note: Many thanks to ALittleSalty1 for lots of help streamlining this chapter.

Well there goes my week. That's what Rain thought as she was lying in her hospital bed and blankly staring up at the ceiling.

The paramedics had been ordered to take her to a nearby military hospital, as she was potentially infected with DG Cells - a classified substance. There, a crack team of doctors and nurses finished freeing her from her silver shell. When she first arrived, they continued doing it the primitive way by chipping away at it with scalpels and mallets. It was tedious and difficult, and Rain thought she was going to be stuck there all night, bored to tears. Fortunately, the staff received a batch of those anti-DG Cell nanomachines, and the process was sped up considerably. They poured a small amount of the sandy substance over the areas of Rain's body that were encased in metal, and with a few clicks and buzzing noises, the nanites turned the coating into dust while sparing her skin and clothes.

Once she was freed, she had to undergo a decontamination shower while the medical staff disposed of her clothes in an incinerator. Even though any DG Cells on them should have been destroyed, the possibility that a few cells may have survived the anti-nanomachine assault was too great a risk. Even her hairband and earrings had to be destroyed. She was rather miffed about this, but she understood. Besides, she had more outfits just like it at home.

After the shower, Rain had to undergo several runs through a high-powered MRI. The hospital staff wanted to use its magnetic field to pull any last straggling DG Cells off the surface of her body. Finally, she was given an intravenous injection of the anti-nanomachines in saline. They were programmed to track down and destroy any DG Cells that might be circulating in her bloodstream while leaving her normal tissues alone. Once they ran out of power and shut down, they would eventually be filtered out by her spleen.

She was placed in a private room in outbreak isolation for a few hours before she underwent a CT-scan. After another hour, she received the results of her scans: her body looked like it was completely clear of any major DG Cell infections. However, because the cells could exist in microscopic colonies, they were going to have to keep her for a few days to make sure there weren't any growing cells that were hidden somewhere in her body. In the meantime, they downgraded her status to contact isolation, and treated her sprained ankle by putting it in a brace and wrapping a cold compress around it (the scans showed that it wasn't, in fact, broken). Her rope burns from the Dark Gundam's cables had mysteriously healed; she wondered if the DG Cells had anything to do with that.

All in all, the procedure was very similar to the one she had undergone a month and a half ago when she was rescued from the Dark Colony. The only major differences was that the metal coating had to be manually removed, and anti-nanites were introduced. As she gazed around her hospital room, she thought of one more: she was alone this time. Back when the Dark Colony had been destroyed, Rain, Domon and all of her friends had to undergo DG Cell decontamination as a precaution. They all did it together at the same hospital and were lucky enough to get adjacent rooms. They were eventually allowed to visit each other, and they discussed the events of the Gundam Fight as well as their plans afterward. Today, unfortunately, Rain was all by herself. The pilots that rescued her did have to undergo decontamination as well, but she didn't know any of them.

It was now the middle of the night. Rain felt tired, but not sleepy. She was more bored than anything. She tried watching TV to see if today's events made the news. Surely they had to, right? Well...sort of. The mysterious hijacker that stole a bunch of military mobile suits and attacked a cargo ship was reported on, but the reporters were silent about the cargo. The Dark Gundam was also absent from any photos or footage. It was censored, of course; the Gundam was top secret, so they couldn't talk about it on national TV. But she really had to wonder how the Neo Japan government was able to do it - how do you hide an eighty-five ton Gundam that's twice as big as your average mobile suit? And how do you hide it when any random person on the street can make a video of it with their phones? The mind boggled. Then again, this thing managed to hide itself from almost everyone's prying eyes for over a year, and it was much bigger back then. Maybe it wasn't as hard as she thought it was.

She was relieved to see that she did not show up in any of the footage, either. It was probably because most of that footage would be of her running from or getting captured by the Dark Gundam. Whatever the reason, she was just very glad the entire nation didn't see her going on a rampage and tearing apart those Busshi.

The news report went on to say that the culprit behind the attack was unknown and still at large. The authorities were currently blaming the whole ordeal on space pirates. Whoever it was, Rain was not happy with them; if it wasn't for them, the Dark Gundam wouldn't have escaped, and she wouldn't be in this mess.

She turned the TV off; it was just aggravating her. The whole situation aggravated her. She didn't want to think about the Dark Gundam, but it was impossible. She was still worried that it would escape again. Worried that it would make her black out again and recapture her. That not only would she be unable to fight it off this time, but that awful thing would go on to make her brutally kill Domon and all of her friends just like she mutilated those drones. She still wasn't sure how she ended up in that field, but she knew deep down that evil machine had something to do with it. But how?

A knock on the door aroused her from her dark thoughts. Probably a nurse coming in to check up on her.

"Come in," she called.

To her surprise, it wasn't a nurse that walked in. Someone very unexpected, but not at all unwelcome, stepped in instead.

"Domon!" she cried.

Sure enough, it was her Gundam Fighter boyfriend, in the flesh. He had a hospital gown over his clothes and was wearing a pair of rubber gloves. The hospital staff probably made him wear it as a precaution. He looked a little silly with it on, but she didn't care; she didn't even think she would be allowed visitors today, and she was so happy to see him. He was also carrying a large shopping bag with him, which he placed on a chair. She wanted so desperately to leap out of the bed and squeeze him, but she knew she really shouldn't right now. She might still be contaminated.

"I came by as soon as I could, but they said you weren't accepting visitors," he explained as he pulled up a seat next to her bed. "So I went home and got your things." He pointed to the shopping bag. "I got you a change of clothes for when you get outta here."

"Great!" Rain replied. "They had to burn all my clothes because of the DG Cells." She paused before adding, "Did you also bring-?"

"A headband and your earrings?" Domon asked. "Yep, they're in there. I remembered how they had to throw away some of our clothes the last time we fought the Dark Gundam, so I brought extras of everything."

Rain chuckled. "You can read my mind, can't you?"

"I also brought you this," he reached under his gown and pulled Rain's phone from his pocket. She accepted it and placed it on the nightstand next to her.

"Now if you need me for anything, you can just call me!" he added.

"Thanks so much, Domon," Rain said, getting a little misty-eyed. She wanted to kiss him, but again, possible contamination. So she settled for putting her hand on one of his gloved hands.

They sat there for awhile, just holding hands. Eventually, Domon broke the silence by asking, "Do you wanna go first, or should I?"

Figuring she would descend into angry ranting the second she tried to tell her side of the story, she replied with, "Maybe you should go first."

Domon began his tale about what happened after he left that morning and was taken to the Burning Gundam's hangar. The morning had been pretty uneventful. The Burning Gundam was ready to go, but he couldn't suit up unless he got word that something had gone wrong. He spent most of the day hanging around the hangar, waiting for either the all clear sign or an SOS.

During the mid-morning, they received an ominous message that a few military mobile suits had been hijacked off a colony base - the exact same base that their cargo ship had launched from. Immediately everyone at the hangar assumed their ship was about to become a target, and started getting ready for takeoff - even Domon got in the Burning Gundam and almost suited up. Rumors began to run wild about who would pull such a brazen move, and what they wanted. However, tensions began to die down a few hours later when they never received the official SOS.

During his lunch break, however, Domon suddenly received a call, and it all went downhill from there. Mr. Watanabe had called to tell him that Rain had just wandered out of the building in a daze. He said that it almost looked like she was sleepwalking. That scared Domon half to death, as he remembered her "sleepwalking" incident a few days before. Unfortunately, he wasn't allowed to leave the hangar. He asked Mr. Watanabe to check and see if Rain was still around the building and if he could try to wake her up. The neighbor said that he had spotted her getting in the car and driving off. She must have been partially awake, because she seemed to obey the traffic laws. Domon told him that he would try to call her and see if that would snap her out of it.

After he thanked his neighbor and hung up, he tried to call Rain's cell phone. Unfortunately, it went to voice mail. He waited a few minutes before trying again. Nothing. Something was wrong - really wrong.

But just when he was considering calling the cops, the alarms went off. The hangar received an SOS from the cargo ship - it had been attacked. It was going to try to land in a field a far distance away, but they were cut off before they could specify exactly where. The hangar's crew immediately scrambled, either getting themselves ready, or trying to pinpoint where the ship was going to try to land.

Another few minutes passed, and the cargo ship managed to contact them again. The crew informed the hangar exactly where they landed, and that they were being attacked by a small squadron of mobile suits that were much harder to hit than any mobile suit had the right to be. It was thought that they might be the mechs that were hijacked earlier. Whoever they were, they seemed to be after their "precious" cargo, so they needed backup immediately. With that, the fleet began to take off. Domon was sent with them, just in case the mysterious assailants managed to get the cargo loose.

Just as he was in line for lift off, the hangar received word from the ship that a civilian had wandered into the battle. The ship then gave them all video feed from the pilots out in the field - and Domon immediately recognized who that "civilian" was. At first he was completely flabbergasted. Was he seeing things? How could she have possibly gotten out there? But there was no mistaking it. He recognized the signature magenta dress and turquoise vest, as well as her profile. It was definitely Rain!

Fit to be tied, Domon broke formation, wanting to fly off on his own. Other pilots quickly stopped him, telling him that if he stepped out of line, he could crash into somebody. Domon started to argue with them when more bad news presented itself: the Dark Gundam had not only escaped the ship, but it had also captured and absorbed Rain as well. Enraged, Domon broke free of the other pilots and flew toward the field as fast as the Burning Gundam's thrusters could take him. He didn't know what would happen when he got there. He dreaded the idea of facing another Dark Colony without his friends. But in the end, it didn't matter; he needed to save Rain!

Fortunately, there were no colonies when he got there. He found the Dark Gundam in that bipedal form that he had encountered last time. It couldn't stand up, but his long-range cameras showed him that it had Rain and several other people on the ground in its clutches. With that, he flew down and cut the cables himself. He saw that the Dark Gundam suddenly shut down afterward, but like Rain, he figured that it was just playing dead. That's why, after he made sure Rain was okay, he tried to finish off the horrible machine.

Unfortunately, the military personnel were adamant about keeping the Dark Gundam. After Rain had been taken to the hospital, he continued arguing with them until a small squadron of them surrounded him and blocked his way. They said that they understood his concern, but orders were orders. Also, they still weren't too happy that he flew off by himself like that. He wasn't sure if they were going to punish him for it or not, though.

"Not sure where the Dark Gundam even is right now. They didn't tell me for obvious reasons," Domon sighed. "I really hope this incident makes them all realize they need to just scrap the thing and be done with it. It's too dangerous to have around!"

"I know, I hope so too," Rain replied. "But I'm not gonna hold my breath."

"What about you, Rain?" Domon asked. "How did you get there? I thought you weren't gonna go anywhere today!"

As Rain tried to figure out where to even begin, she found herself growing more and more frustrated. Finally she just blurted out, "That giant hussy brainwashed me somehow! I don't know how she did it, but she did it!"

Domon jumped a little at the outburst. "Uh...who's 'she'?" he asked.

"I-I mean, the Dark Gundam," Rain answered, trying to calm herself down.

"...The Dark Gundam is a girl now?" Domon said, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry, it's just that...the thing talks in my voice," Rain explained, "so I started thinking of her - I mean it, as female."

Domon's eyes widened. "The Dark Gundam can talk?!"

"Well, sort of," Rain said. "Ugh, let me start from the beginning."

Rain told Domon about the hallucinations she had been having in better detail. She told him about the weird incident a few weeks ago with the spilled tea. Then she described the nightmare she had when she was "sleepwalking." She even told him about Kyoji and how he was trying to warn her about the Dark Gundam. Domon looked a little disturbed by that, but he let her continue.

She talked about today's hallucination. Of how when she went to get coffee, the room suddenly went dark and the living room was filled with silver monsters. Of how when the Dark Gundam spoke to her, she suddenly felt very tired. Of how Kyoji tried to help her, but was captured by a fake Master Asia. Of how she fell asleep on a chair and woke up in the middle of a battlefield.

She talked about how she tried to get as far away from the battle as possible, only to run right into the downed cargo ship and the Dark Gundam escaping from it. She was forced to run right back to the battle as vile mech dragged itself after her. One of the few remaining pilots tried to help her, but he was gunned down by one of those drones. The Dark Gundam saved her from being squished, but it was only so it could assimilate her.

With a slight smile on her face, she described how she gave the Gundam a hard time - ripping out cables and pulling the silver slime off of her. She mentioned how it used her own voice to communicate with her, and how it seemed to speak directly into her mind. She gingerly told Domon about fighting the Busshi drones and destroying them. She told him that she was still convinced the Dark Gundam made her go berserk, like it did to its other victims. Finally, she told him how she was able to escape with the help of Dr. Kasshu's anti-nanomachines (and that she sprained her ankle on the way down). She almost got away too, until the monster caused her metal coating to completely harden around her, making her unable to move. The surviving pilots from the Busshi battle tried to help her, but the Dark Gundam eventually overwhelmed them all. Fortunately, that's when Domon showed up and saved the day.

"That's about it," she said. "I really don't know how I got from the apartment to that field."

"You drove," Domon answered.

"I...did?" Rain looked at him, confused.

"Yeah, one of the scouts told me they found an abandoned car in a picnic area near the field," he replied. "They ran the license plates and found out it was our car. I had it towed back to our place."

"I drove while hypnotized?!" Rain cried. "Oh my goodness, I could've crashed!"

"But hey, you didn't!" Domon reassured her. "And now you can tell everybody you can literally drive better than them in your sleep!"

She smiled a little at the joke. "Thanks, Domon," she said, "but I'm really worried that this isn't the end. The Dark Gundam might be contained, but...what if it hypnotizes me again? I still don't know how it's able to do it! I know I was its life unit, but..."

"I don't really have an answer for that," Domon sighed. "I can ask my father to look into it for you...hopefully he can figure out what it did. In the meantime, all I can say is what I've said before." He reached over and took her hand in his gloved palm. "We can get through this."

Rain squeezed his hand in return. "I...I hope so," she said. "I'm worried that next time...next time it'll make me go crazy! What if it makes me attack you?!"

"Then I'll wake you up!" Domon replied. "Trust me, I'm just as worried about the Dark Gundam escaping - especially since it's top secret and they expect me not to tell the other Shuffle Alliance members about it." He held her hand in both palms. "But until it's finally destroyed, I promise you I'll do everything in my power to make sure it doesn't get you again! Okay?"

Rain smiled again, getting misty-eyed. "Okay," she said. She really wanted to give him a kiss on the cheek, but again, it was best not to do that while she could still be contaminated. She settled for giving him a kiss on one of his gloved hands.


Domon stayed there for as long as he was allowed to. When the news came back on, they watched the report on the cargo ship attack together. Rain elaborated a bit more on what happened during the battle. She also had to fill in the blanks, as the reports still carefully danced around any mention of the Dark Gundam. They both wondered who it was that attacked the ship, and what they wanted. Did they even know what was in there, or were they actually after the Dark Gundam? Was it actually space pirates? Was it...Argo that did that? Maybe he found out somehow that the horrible Gundam was still functional and tried to destroy it himself! But no...Argo had his own ship and crew; hijacking and reprogramming a bunch of mobile suits would be unnecessary. Besides, he would have recognized Rain when she wandered out there, and would have tried to rescue her.

Once visiting hours were up, he told Rain that he would be back to see her tomorrow, and reminded her that if she needed anything, she could give him a call at anytime. The nurses practically had to drag him out of her room, he was so reluctant to leave.

Rain wasn't sure how she was going to get to sleep after everything that happened. She still had a lot on her mind, most of it worries. She tried closing her eyes and thinking about something relaxing, like being back at home with Domon. She tried to push the Dark Gundam out of her mind as much as she could. It seemed to work well enough, because she was able to slowly drift off to sleep.

She found herself waking up in the middle of the night. She didn't think anything of it, at first; it's not like she hadn't randomly woken up before. She planned on just going right back to sleep, but she noticed she wasn't tired. She felt freezing cold instead. In addition, there was an annoyingly bright light right above her head; it was if there was a spotlight hovering right over her bed. She closed her eyes tight and instinctively reached for her blanket so she could throw it over her head to block the cold and the glare.

But...her arms wouldn't budge! Something that felt like ropes were tied tightly around her forearms, preventing her from moving. She could also feel them around her ankles, tying her legs together. And if that wasn't enough, she suddenly realized she wasn't lying down in a bed, she was standing up, her bonds supporting her.

She quickly opened her eyes. Directly in front of her was nothing but darkness; she couldn't even see the outline of her room's window. Thanks to the bright light, she could at least see the area immediately around her. What she saw was some very familiar green cables all around her, and an equally familiar silver shell covering her entire body.

Rain screamed and began to struggle against her restraints. It was all in vain though, as they held her fast. The liquid silver hadn't hardened or blinded her yet, but that was a very small comfort. She could practically feel the metal ooze seeping through her skin and coursing through her veins, threatening to turn her into a machine.

"Why-? How did I get here?! How did this happen?!" she cried, immediately wincing afterward at how metallic her voice sounded. She had to have been captured by the Dark Gundam again, but how did it do it without her knowing? It would not only have had to escape its prison, but it would have had to demolish the hospital - there was no way she could have slept through that! Did it hypnotize her again so she wouldn't run away?

Suddenly, a deep voice rang out in the darkness. "Calm down, Rain! This is only a dream!"

She stopped fighting when she recognized the voice. "Kyoji?"

Sure enough, the ghostly form of Kyoji materialized in front of her. "You are still in bed asleep...for now."

It made sense; it explained how she was inside the Dark Gundam without hearing it come for her as well as why she could still move somewhat and see. It still raised a few questions, however.

"If this is a dream, why does it feel so real?" she asked. "And why aren't I waking up?" Every time her dreams started to go lucid before, she would always wake up. It was like clockwork.

"Because this is not a normal dream," Kyoji explained. "This vision is a representation of the Dark Gundam's neural network. You are connected to it, and what you are seeing is your brain trying to make sense of it."

"I'm connected to the Dark Gundam? But how?"

Kyoji's face darkened. "There are small amounts of DG Cells still left in your brainstem and spine from the first time you were its core unit. It's through these cells that the Dark Gundam can take control of you and send you orders."

"Oh. That's why." Rain's heart sank. She had been batting around the idea that the Gundam was controlling her through hidden DG Cells, but she dismissed it when nothing appeared on her scans. But then she remembered that if the quantities were small enough, they could easily hide from scans. Worse yet, the DG Cells had infected her brain, and in places it was impossible to remove them from. Trying to surgically remove them would kill her. Even injecting the anti-nanomachines in that area would be too dangerous.

"Your DG Cells aren't replicating, so you're not in any danger of going berserk or turning into a machine," Kyoji continued. "However, the Dark Gundam is currently trying to send you orders subconsciously. It wants you to go to the facility where it is imprisoned and set it free. I am currently interfering with its commands, but it will only be a matter of time before it finds me again. We need to find a way to disconnect you before it gains control of you."

It was just as she feared - it wasn't over. The Dark Gundam was still trying to hypnotize her, and with those DG Cells in her brain, it could do it whenever it wanted. It didn't matter how many cages they locked it in, it would simply take control of her and force her to set it free. And once it was out, it would waste no time in making her its core again. It would repeat this as many times as necessary until it created a Dark Colony that no one, not even the Shuffle Alliance, could destroy. And it absolutely would not stop, ever, until all humans were dead.

Rain felt her anger surging back. How dare it try to use her like this! She wasn't some piece of hardware that it could just install into itself whenever it felt like! And how dare it try to use her to kill her friends, her family...her entire species!

"You don't need to tell me twice!" she yelled to Kyoji. With that, she summoned the strength to rip her arms free of the cables. She then reached down and tore them off of her legs. She tend stepped up to her ghostly friend and grabbed him by the arm. Since this was a dream, she could touch him now.

"C'mon, Kyoji. We're getting out of here!" she said. And with that, she flew straight up into the air with him in tow. Because again, this was a dream; she could fly if she wanted to!

A moment later, she felt herself hit something above her, almost like a ceiling. Whatever it was, it was soft, and she ripped right through it like tissue paper. She continued to fly up into more darkness, but thanks to dream logic, she knew it was actually the "sky."

Rain hovered in midair with Kyoji and looked down. Beneath them was the lake of silver that she hallucinated before. Directly below them was the silver Dark Gundam, which now had a hole in its back. It seemed to be alone this time; if its friends were there, she couldn't see them.

Speaking of the Dark Gundam...Rain reached up and peeled the silver shell off of her face. With a good tug, she ripped the whole thing off her body in one big gooey piece. Underneath the metal was her pink and magenta Gundam fight suit. She hurled the shed coating down to the lake below.

"Ugh, I don't like silver anymore!" she told Kyoji, her voice no longer tinny.

The shell curled itself into a ball in midair and flew down to the Dark Gundam's shoulder. There, it started to form a humanoid shape. Rain felt sickened when she realized what it was turning itself into - a silver version of herself with glowing green eyes. First it stole her voice, now it (...she?) was mocking her form.

Why must you insist on resisting me? her doppelganger asked in that distorted voice.

"Because I'm not your slave!" Rain barked at it. "And I'm not about to let you use me to kill every human on this planet! Now you better disconnect me from your network before I really get mad!"

Why ever would you want to disconnect? her "twin" asked. We made an excellent team when we fought those drones, did we not? They were not normal mobile suits, and not even a Neo Japanese military fleet could effectively destroy them. Yet we destroyed three of them within minutes of each other.

"You made me do that!" Rain shouted as she pointed to her ghost partner. "Kyoji here told me all about the DG Cells that are still in my brain!"

The Dark Gundam and its avatar glared at Kyoji. He just impassively stared back at them, but Rain could sense he was frightened.

I thought I erased you from my memory banks, the false Rain said. No matter, I will just delete you again. It turned to the real Rain. As for your DG Cells, it is true that there is a minute quantity of them in your brain, which I use to communicate with you. But I did not need to activate their berserker function. As I said before, your desire to destroy those mobile suits was your own.

"That's enough out of you!" Rain yelled. "Disconnect me now, or else!"

And if I refuse? the avatar had no pupils, yet it felt like it was rolling its eyes at her.

"Well, if you won't do it yourself...," Rain raised her arm straight up and snapped her fingers, just like she saw Domon do a hundred times before.

"COME, RISING GUNDAM!"

Instantly, a Gundam with a red torso and extra-long pauldrons appeared behind her and Kyoji. There was a heat naginata on its back, and a folded beam bow on its left arm. It opened its chest, and the two humans floated into its cockpit. Rain placed herself neatly into the mech's mobile trace system while Kyoji stood next to it. The chestplates closed behind them, and the panoramic view screen came up, allowing them to see the Dark Gundam again.

"...Then I'll just have to fight you until you do!" Rain shouted down at the monster as took the naginata off her Gundam's back and brandished it.

You are continuing to behave irrationally, the silver copy sneered at her. The sneer then turned into an amused smirk. But I suppose I can humor you. I found our earlier battle against the drones pleasant enough, and I have never been formally challenged to a Gundam fight. It pleases me that you are the first.

There was a low rumbling noise as huge pillars began to rise out of the silver sea. They completely encircled both Rain and the Dark Gundam. Liquid metal cables shot out of the sides of each pillar, connecting them to one another. It was a fighting ring! Rain lowered the Rising Gundam until it was about eye level with the enemy.

Gundam fight all set?! the avatar yelled to her, still smirking.

"READY!" Rain shouted back, readying her blade.

"GO!"

Just as Rain was about to charge at the Dark Gundam, a giant blob of metal arose from the lake below, forcing her to stop in her tracks. It formed itself into that massive Gundam with the long horns and cannons on its back. The upper half of a metallic Gentle Chapman was poking out of the top of the mech's head. Seeing him reminded her of where she saw this monstrosity before; it appeared during George's fight against Chapman during the finals in Neo Hong Kong. It had tried to hide itself under a blanket of black smoke, but it was so huge that everyone saw it anyway. For some reason, she knew it was called the "Grand Gundam," though she didn't remember anybody telling her its name before.

She had barely any time to react when the huge horns shot forward and tried to skewer her. She managed to fly out of their way, but the horns still grazed one of her arms.

"Hey! You can't bring your friends in here!" Rain cried. "That's not fair!"

You did not specify that this would be a one-on-one match, the Dark Gundam's disembodied voice explained. Besides, you have your own ally with you.

Rain had no time to fume over her opponents' loophole abuse, as the Grand Gundam began firing its cannons at her. It fired large mechanical hands on long chains that were trying to snatch her out of the air. She was forced to retreat.

"It's probably talking about me," Kyoji said, "but I'm afraid I'm not going to be much help. I don't have Schwartz's battle data, so I can't create the Shadow Gundam."

"That's alright, Kyoji," Rain replied. "This is my fight anyway."

It was then that one of the hands grabbed the Rising Gundam by the ankle. Both Rain and Kyoji were thrown forward by the sudden stop. The silver Chapman roared as the Grand Gundam then hurled them high into air. At first, Rain was confused as to why it would do that instead of just skewering her again. But then she heard a screechy voice above her, and she realized why.

"HYPER SPECTRUM BEAM KICK SPECIAL!"

A tall, thin Gundam with a very long, pointy helmet slammed into the Rising Gundam foot first, driving it down into the liquid metal. She was surprised in that she actually felt some vague pain from the kick.

The thin Gundam leaped back into the air where it curled up into a big silver ball and reformed as a bird-like mech with blades for feathers. She realized that she had seen this Gundam before as well - it was when Domon fought Michelo in the Gundam Fight finals. Like its bigger comrade, it too tried to hide under a smokescreen, only to be seen anyway. In fact, Rain could see that the silver Michelo was riding on its back, a sleazy grin plastered on his shiny, reflective face. This thing was called the "Soaring Raven Gundam," though again, she didn't understand how she knew that.

"Now I have to deal with two of them?!" she cried. She was really starting to get angry now. The Dark Gundam said it was bad at lying, but it certainly was good at cheating!

She was about to make her Gundam stand up out of the mire when she suddenly felt herself being held down. The metal slime was crawling all over her mobile suit's body, tying her down. To make matters worse, the Grand Gundam was slowly lumbering toward her on all fours, two of its cannons charging.

"What...what do I do?!" Rain cried. What would happen if that thing blew her up? She was in a dream, so she couldn't die, right? Would she instantly lose her free will to the Dark Gundam again?

"Rain! Don't let them intimidate you!" Kyoji said. "Remember where you are!"

Of course! Like she just got through thinking, this was a dream - she could do anything here. The Dark Gundam was invading her subconscious, but it probably didn't understand how human subconsciousness worked. Time to teach it a lesson!

With a burst of mental energy, Rain made the Rising Gundam tear right through the metal strings and jump up out of the silver liquid. She then flew high into the air as the Grand Gundam fired huge beams out of its cannons. She sailed right over its head and landed on its back. She remembered how she was able to take out Michelo yesterday in one punch, so these things were probably weak. She raised her naginata and stabbed the Grand Gundam right between its horns.

All it accomplished was making the metal Chapman to let out another angry roar and for the mech to start shaking violently, trying to get her off of it. Rain jumped off and hovered in the air behind it. Okay, so it looked like the silver Gundams were much tougher than the humans; she'd have to come up with a better plan.

Suddenly, she heard Michelo screeching, "You'll hafta do better than that, girlie!" A second later, the Raven Gundam flew out of the darkness. It was coming right for her, claws outstretched. Meanwhile, she heard Chapman growling as he slowly turned the Grand Gundam around, charging all four of its cannons this time.

Instantly, she had a plan.

"Hang on to something, Kyoji!" she said to her ghostly friend as she...patiently continued hovering and waited. The Raven Gundam swooped down for the kill. The Grand Gundam's cannons finished charging.

Kyoji shot her a confused look as he held on to one of the trace system's rings. "Um, Rain...?" he said nervously, watching their two foes closing in on them.

And then, just as the former was mere feet away from her, and the latter opened fire, Rain flew straight up.

"NO!" the fake Michelo screamed as the beams came right at him. He tried to avoid them, but it was too late. They tore right through his Gundam, splattering it and him everywhere. They fell down into the lake in amorphous heaps. Meanwhile, the silver Chapman stared into the empty space where his comrade had been, flabbergasted. Well, trying to look flabbergasted. It was a dull kind of shock that made him look like he had been hit by a fish rather than being tricked into shooting his ally. Either way, he was distracted.

"You really had me worried for a second, there!" Kyoji laughed nervously. "But what about Chapman?"

"Don't worry, I'll deal with him in a second!" Rain assured the ghost.

Rain landed the Rising Gundam on his back again, her naginata ready. Chapman wasted no time in trying to shake her off of him. Rain responded by raising her weapon and chopping off something that wouldn't grow back so easily - the Gundam's head! Chapman made a terrified scream as he and the head component fell into metal sea. Meanwhile, the body melted into a shapeless silver heap. She couldn't help feel a little sorry for the guy; sure, he was kind of a cheater in life, but he didn't deserve to have his body desecrated and reanimated by DG Cells.

"That's two down," Kyoji remarked. "Two to go."

Two more? Rain then remembered the other Gundams from her first vivid hallucination. There were indeed four of them. The Raven and Grand Gundams were the ones she hadn't recognized right away. That meant the other two were...

"Rain, look out!" Kyoji suddenly shouted, his eyes wide.

A split-second later, a metal sphere with two long spikes sticking out of its sides came hurtling out of the darkness, right at the Rising Gundam's chest! Rain just barely managed to jump out of the way. One of the spikes still scratched her Gundam right across the chest, but thankfully didn't tear it open.

The silver ball roared as it flew past her in a distorted female voice. The ball opened horizontally, revealing the torso of the bizarre Walter Gundam. It sprouted its three legs, extended its tentacle arms, and opened its long claws. It retracted its faceplate to reveal its mouthful of metal fangs.

"Fight me, Rain!" the echoing voice taunted her as the mech opened its claws to reveal the lasers in its palms. "C'mon! You know you want to!"

"Allenby...?" Rain immediately recognized the strange voice as Allenby's in her berserker mode. But where was she? This Gundam didn't seem to have its pilot riding on it like the last two.

"What's wrong? Are ya scared?!" Allenby's disembodied voice continued as the Walter Gundam's lasers began to charge. "Fight me like you did last time!"

The Gundam began to rapidly fire lasers at Rain. Thinking quickly, Rain put her naginata on her back and made the Rising Gundam detach its long pauldrons. She took them off and put them together to form her shield. She used it to block the oncoming laser fire. She shouldn't be bothering trying to negotiate with this thing; if there was an Allenby in there, it would be that fake silver one from yesterday. On the other hand, it was a copy of a friend, not an enemy. Was it possible to talk to her instead of fight her? On the other other hand, even the real Allenby couldn't be talked to in her berserker state...

The Walter Gundam stopped firing when that none of its attacks were getting through and curled itself into a ball again. It hurled itself at her, spinning as it went. Due to Rain being distracted, it was able to successfully ram the Rising Gundam head on, knocking it off balance and sending it toppling over backwards. Rain was able to stop herself in midair and get back on her feet before she hit the liquid metal. However, she accidentally dropped her shield, which fell right into the lake below. It was quickly consumed by the silver.

"No, Allenby! We don't have to do this!" Rain cried. "You might not be real, but you're still a friend! We don't need to fight each other like this!"

"Too bad!" Allenby's voice screamed as the Walter Gundam uncurled itself again. "Because I want to fight you!"

It started firing at Rain again. With no shield, she was forced to fly straight up and out of the way.

"Don't let it fool you, Rain!" Kyoji suddenly said. "That's not Allenby in any way, shape, or form. This is the Dark Gundam trying to cow you into surrendering!"

"R-right. I just thought it was worth a try." Now that Rain thought about it, that was probably what the Dark Gundam wanted her to do. It probably saw how reluctant she was to fight the fake Allenby from yesterday and was using it against her.

Once again, the Walter Gundam curled itself up and flung itself at her. Its tentacle arms were out this time, probably in order to grab her or clothesline her if she tried to dodge. So Rain didn't bother retreating this time. Instead, she waited until the Walter Gundam got close enough before punting the thing like a soccer ball. The fake Allenby stopped roaring and let out a confused grunt.

Rain then put away her naginata, and unfolded her beam bow. "You want me to fight you just like last time?" she growled. "Fine, that's what you'll get! But I warn you, the real version lost that battle!"

She waited patiently the Walter Gundam recovered from its confusion and launched itself at her again. She waited for it to come closer so it couldn't dodge.

"ULTIMATE BULLSEYE!" she yelled. "RISING ARR-"

But just as she had the thing dead in her sights, a sheet of liquid metal wrapped around her beam bow and snatched it right out of the Rising Gundam's hands.

"What the-?!" Rain cried. It was now her turn to be confused.

Her confusion didn't last long however, as the Walter Gundam slammed into her, knocking her down into the silver sea. She stood back up as quick as she could so that the slime wouldn't try to drag her down into its depths again. But no sooner did she get back on her feet than that metal sheet flung out of the darkness again and wrapped itself around the Rising Gundam's upper body, pinning her arms to her sides. She struggled to break free, but it held her too tight. Meanwhile, the ooze from the lake slowly started to crawl up her mobile suit's feet.

"Don't even bother to get up!" a gruff metallic voice scoffed at her.

Rain recognized that voice too. Sure enough, a silver version of the Master Gundam appeared from the gloom, that metal version of Master Asia riding on its shoulder. It was holding the other end of sheet that had her tied up. Of course...this was the last of the four Gundams she saw in her first vision.

"If you're smart, you'll just surrender now!" the fake Master Asia sneered at her.

"Never!" Rain barked. "I'll never give into you or the Dark Gundam!"

"You might want to reconsider!" the metal Master taunted her. "If you don't give up, I'll be your next opponent...and you've seen what I'm capable of! You've seen me destroy Dark Army mobile suits without even being in one! You fought me once before in the Shining Gundam and failed miserably! Even Domon couldn't defeat me until the very end! What makes you think you would even stand a ghost of a chance?!"

Rain glanced at Kyoji. They both nodded at each other. She then turned back to the fake Asia and said, "Because this is a dream, and I can do whatever I want!"

With a massive burst of energy, the Rising Gundam broke free of the silver Master's sash and any liquid metal that had crawled up its legs. It also turned gold, as it had entered hyper mode. Rain wasn't sure if the Rising Gundam even had a hyper mode, but it did now!

She saw the silver Master sneering at her from his perch on the Master Gundam's shoulders. She reminded herself that the real Master Asia died during the final battle of the Gundam Fight - Domon told her the tragic news after she was rescued from the Dark Colony. This thing in front of her was just a cheap knockoff that wasn't nearly as powerful as the original.

Her Gundam's right hand began to glow a bright blue. She clenched it threateningly. She thought about saying a mantra, but she couldn't think of a good one. Repeating the ones Domon always said seemed rather unimaginative, so she just decided to skip it. She charged at the false Master and his mech with her glowing hand out in front of her.

"RISING FING-"

She suddenly felt sharp pain in her forearm and nearly fell over when something grabbed the Rising Gundam by its attacking arm. The Walter Gundam had decided to make its reappearance (quietly, for once) and cancelled out Rain's attack by clamping its jaws down on her Gundam's arm. Her hand stopped glowing as her Rising Finger completely fizzled out.

Master Asia began to laugh at her. "Oh, that's just rich!" he cackled. "You can't even get through one attack!"

Rain ignored him. She still had her hyper mode, she could still do this. She continued her charge at the Masters. Since the Walter Gundam refused to let go of her arm, she dragged it along for the ride.

The fake Master stopped laughing. "What do you think you're doing?" he snarled at her, annoyed.

"Laugh this off!" Rain snapped as she lunged forward.

And with that, she slammed the Master Gundam upside its head with Walter Gundam. Master Asia was completely taken by surprise and fell right off his reeling mech's shoulder, sputtering angry as he hung onto one of its wings. Allenby's distorted voice was now groaning instead of roaring, but the three-legged mech was still stubbornly clinging to Rain's arm.

The battered Master Gundam quickly regained its composure and one of its clawed hands began to glow purple. Rain didn't even give it a chance; she continued to whack the bat-like Gundam right between its huge ears with its own ally until eventually both it and its pilot melted into liquid silver. Hopelessly banged up from being used as a mace, the Walter Gundam followed suit. It finally let go of the Rising Gundam when its head became an amorphous blob and slid off its arm.

"That should be all of them!" Kyoji said.

"Alright!" Rain cheered. "Let's take out the Dark Gundam now before it calls for any more friends!"

But before Rain charged into the next battle, she decided to regenerate her missing shield and bow. Since the enemy was using silver liquid, why make them out of gold dust? There was a soft magnetic hum as glittering golden sand materialized around the Rising Gundam, which regenerated the pauldrons on her shoulders and the bow on her arm. She readied her naginata again and charged directly at the unguarded Dark Gundam in the center of the sea.

Aren't you forgetting someone? it suddenly asked.

Rain skidded to a halt as a massive mountain of metal rose up in front of her. She looked to Kyoji for answers, but he looked as confused as she did.

The silver liquid formed itself into an enormous, freakish machine that was bigger than the Dark Gundam itself. It seemed to be made up of parts from the four mobile suits that Rain just defeated. The upper body of the Master Gundam was poking out of the Grand Gundam's body. The Raven Gundam's wings were slapped on its back, and its giant claws were poking out of its sides. It had a long cord-like tail that ended in a legless Walter Gundam, whose jaws now seemed to open wider than ever.

"What is that thing?!" Rain cried. In her shock, the Rising Gundam returned to normal.

The giant monster wasted no time in trying to skewer her with the horns on its back. She jumped out of the way, only for it to launch its giant feather blades at her. She managed to dodge them, but a few of them still nicked her, putting deep cuts in the Rising Gundam's armor. After the combiner had finished shooting all of the blades on its wings, it instantly grew them back and started firing off the next round.

"I think it's called the 'Grand Master Gundam,'" Kyoji explained. "I saw its file, but I was never able to access it. I didn't realize those things could combine!"

"Grand Master..." Rain suddenly realized that she had seen this monster before. After the Dark Gundam had absorbed the Neo Japan colony, Major Ulube had created it from the main power generator. He then used it to attack Domon and the rest of the Shuffle Alliance who were on their way to save her. They destroyed it somehow, but it was revived a few minutes later. She wasn't there, yet she somehow remembered it. She wondered if she knew this because of her connection to the Dark Gundam.

One of the feather blades slashed the Rising Gundam across its back. Rain snarled and unfolded her beam bow. It was time to stop dodging and start fighting back. As it paused to regenerate its blades, she rapidly fired as many beam arrows as she could at it. Being a big target, it was easy to hit. Most of the arrows struck its chest, its front legs, and its wings. However, its gelatinous body quickly sealed up any damage done to it.

Okay...if arrows didn't work, maybe chopping off a few limbs or heads might! She put away her bow, grabbed her naginata, and charged right at the beast. The Master Gundam portion of the giant monster retaliated by firing huge black beams at her with both hands - it was some sort of variant of the Darkness Finger.

Rain flew around the beams and right over the Grand Master's head. The abomination stopped to try and turn around, but its enormous, bulky, slapped-together body made it difficult. Rain took that opportunity to fly right behind its Master Gundam component. She chopped off its bat wings, as they were it her way before chopping off its head.

"Gotcha!" she shouted.

However, the Grand Master Gundam did not melt away. Instead, the monstrosity continued to stand there, relatively solid despite its decapitation.

"No? That didn't do it?" Rain said. "Well...maybe I have to cut something else off!"

She readied her blade again, but paused when she suddenly heard ghostly laughter all around her. She recognized the laughing voices as Michelo, Allenby, and Master Asia.

"What's...going on?" Rain asked, cautiously looking around.

"I...I don't know," Kyoji replied as he stationed himself behind her and watched the rear screens.

A moment later, the Master Gundam section picked up its severed head. It held it up, facing the Rising Gundam. Its face began to melt and warp gruesomely until it looked like Master Asia with two chrome bat ears sticking out of his head. If Rain was awake, she knew her hair would be standing on end.

"Is that all you've got?!" the disembodied head jeered at her.

"Behind you!" Kyoji suddenly yelled.

Unfortunately, it was too late. Just as Rain turned the Rising Gundam around, the Walter Gundam "tail" sunk its teeth into her midsection. The toothy mech's head had also undergone a grotesque mutation, adding Allenby's hair and some of her facial features but keeping its wide jaw. It dragged the Rising Gundam in front of the combiner's massive horns. Rain saw bolts of energy crackle between them and heard the ominous humming of some sort of attack powering up. She had to get out of here - quick!

Fortunately for her, she had managed to hang onto her naginata. She poked the freakish mech in one of its disturbingly human-like eyes with the blunt end of the pole. It let out a shriek and let go of her. Just as she was about to fly away, however, the Grand Master fired a gigantic beam from between its horns. Despite being asleep, she felt a muted burning sensation all over her body. She fell over onto her back and the severely burned Rising Gundam fell out of the black sky. It landed with a splash in the silver lake below.

Rain felt Kyoji sit her up in his arms and try to get her to come to her senses, but she didn't know if she could. She couldn't be tired, but she did feel like she was about to lose consciousness. The world around her was blurry, and Kyoji's voice was muffled. She felt as if her dream was going to disappear at any second.

She noticed a dark shadow blotting out the view from her screens. At first, she thought she was finally going under, but then her vision slowly started to clear up and focus. The shadow was actually one of the Grand Master Gundam's feet. It was about to step on them and crush them. With her last ounce of mental energy, she forced the Rising Gundam to tear through the liquid metal and fly out from under the foot.

Once she was a safe distance away, Rain made the Rising Gundam hover in place. She could just barely make it stand up straight and float above the metallic ooze. Parts of it was turning translucent, as if it was about to phase out of existence. At some point, she had lost her heat naginata; no doubt it had been devoured by the silver muck when she fell. Inside the cockpit, she had to lean against Kyoji in order to stay on her feet.

What was going on here? She thought she could do anything in a dream! Then again, she was fighting against a real outside presence invading her mind. Maybe in this case, there were limits to what she could do. If that was true, how could she ever win?

She looked up to see that the Grand Master Gundam was looking more and more hideous by the minute. It now had Chapman's giant, misshapen head and arms sticking out of its lower body. It now had a huge, bulging eye on each wing, which she assumed belonged to Michelo.

"What am I gonna do?" she asked Kyoji. "None of my attacks damage that thing...!"

You should surrender, that's what you should do, the Dark Gundam's voice suddenly echoed through the cockpit. My Grand Master Gundam is impervious to all of your attacks, and if you cannot defeat it, you will never defeat me. At this point, you cannot win our little Gundam fight. I believe the correct phrase for this situation is "you should just throw in the towel."

Rain was too out of it to think of any snappy comebacks. Thankfully, Kyoji had her covered. "No one asked YOU!" he barked at it.

A plan slowly started to form in Rain's mind. She could remember things about the Grand Master Gundam despite never laying eyes on it possibly thanks to the Dark Gundam's network. Some of these things were of Domon and the Shuffle Alliance defeating it - several times in fact, because it could regenerate. But how did they do it? She searched the memories-she-shouldn't-have for the answer. Apparently, Domon and his friends all went into hyper mode at once and blew it up with some sort of combination attack. The problem was that the Shuffle Alliance wasn't here.

...Or to be more accurate, they weren't here physically. But because this was a dream, they could be here in spirit! Rain just hoped she had enough strength to pull this off; she was having trouble just keeping the Rising Gundam together.

She held tightly to Kyoji as she concentrated with all her might. There was a soft hum of microscopic magnets as the glowing golden sand began to rain down from the darkness above them. The sparkling dust repaired all of the damage to the Rising Gundam, reformed its naginata, and put it into hyper mode. It then put a second pair of horns on its head and gave it six thin wings complete with a rainbow halo between them - it now somewhat resembled the Burning Gundam. Rain also made the sand come into the cockpit, where it began to coalesce into a humanoid form. Kyoji's eyes widened when he realized who it was forming into. Outside, the sand buzzed and clicked as it began to assemble four other mobile suits on either side of the "Burning Rising Gundam."

The Grand Master Gundam seemed to realize what Rain was doing, as all of its twisted faces suddenly looked frightened. "Don't you dare, don't you dare!" the Master Asia head screamed as it put itself back on its shoulders in order to free up its hands. It then fired everything it had at Rain: its feather blades, the enormous beam from its horns, and the black beam from the Master Gundam's hands. However, the gold sand managed to neutralize its attacks. With a soft buzzing sound, it reduced all of the blades into dust and deflected away the beams.

The four golden mobile suits finished forming. They were replicas of the other four Gundams of the Shuffle Alliance: Gundam Maxter, Gundam Rose, the Dragon Gundam, and the Bolt Gundam. All of them were completely gold, just as the Dark Gundam and its minions were solid silver. They rippled and shimmered all over just like Dr. Kasshu's anti-nanomachines. Inside each one was a copy of their respective pilots, also gold and shimmering. Inside Rain's cockpit, the sand had created a golden copy of Domon (which Kyoji examined thoughtfully). Perhaps it was due to Rain's fatigued subconscious, but the Shuffle Alliance humans looked a little...off. They had dark lines outlining their musculature, and they all had blank, opaque white eyes. Rain just shrugged it off. This was a dream, after all; some things were going to be weird or not quite right.

The gold pilots each raised one hand, which began to glow brightly. "Our spirits are aflame! If we can feel the fire, there is nothing we cannot defeat!" they all said simultaneously. Their voices all had an electronic buzz to them, as if they were speaking through an auto-tune device.

They clenched their fists, which displayed their respective Shuffle crests. The Grand Master Gundam's faces looked terrified; now it was its turn to be helpless. Rejuvenated and excited, Rain began to join in on her friends' mantra.

"And now this hand of mine is burning red!" the golden Shuffle Alliance continued. "Its loud roar tells me to grasp victory!"

"ERUPTING..."

An ominous blue glow surrounded the five Gundams.

"...SHUFFLE ALLIANCE ATTACK!"

The Gundams created a wall of prismatic blue light that extended the width and height of the battlefield. It created waves of liquid metal as it expanded out toward their opponent. The Grand Master Gundam fired its beams at the attack hoping to cancel it out or at least shove the wall back, but the light continued advancing undeterred. The blue energy tore through the abominable combination of man and machine, turning it into dust. Once the monster was gone, the attack dissipated. Unfortunately, so did the members of the Shuffle Alliance. They all turned back into gold sand, which scattered and blew away. Even in the cockpit of the Rising Gundam, the false Domon became a pile of glimmering ash. Kyoji gave it a disturbed look.

"Thank you," Rain found herself saying to the empty spaces where her friends once stood. Now that she thought about it, their attack was different than it was in her memories. Wasn't it supposed to be a ball of golden energy? She didn't remember anything about a wall of blue light...

But now was not the time to think it over. The Dark Gundam was unguarded again. She needed to go over there and finish it off before it called for more help. Right now, the Rising Gundam had gone back to normal. It no longer had its Burning Gundam "costume," but was completely repaired and had all of its weapons. Rain herself was feeling much better, alert again and focused. Now was the time to strike.

She paused for a moment as she considered the best method of attack. The first thing that came to mind was the move she and Domon used to finish off the Dark Gundam last time: the Sekiha Love Love Tenkyoken. But thanks to the previous battle, she wasn't so sure if punching a heart-shaped hole in it would work this time. She decided it was better to see how tough this thing was, so she wouldn't waste her ace in the hole.

Rain readied her blade again and flew straight at her archnemesis in the middle of the ring. As she got closer, she noticed her doppelganger was smirking at her. She also noticed that it wasn't trying to attack her. No doubt it was plotting something, but what? She continued her charge, and once she was right up on top of it, she jumped high in the air. She pointed her naginata out at it, in order to slice the fiend vertically in half as she came down.

Unfortunately for her, it caught her blade with its back arms.

"Hey! Let go!" she yelled at it, trying pull her weapon out of the silver mech's palms.

I commend you on your creativity against my Grand Master Gundam, the Dark Gundam's avatar replied. Why don't we call a truce now? We should not be fighting.

"Only if you disconnect me from your network!" Rain snapped. "That's why we were fighting in the first place!"

Again, I must ask why you would want to, her copy continued. We seem to be made for each other. I suppose the word "destined" is more accurate.

"What?!" Rain barked, feeling herself get angry.

Think back to our battle against those drones, the smirk on the doppelganger's face seemed to get wider. You were able to pilot me so effortlessly. You automatically knew how to use all of my weapons systems. You destroyed those drones so easily - I only had to defend you once. You even called me your Gundam!

"S-So what?!" Rain sputtered. "That doesn't mean anything!"

Does it? the Dark Gundam continued. You may recall from the first time you were my life unit that my current form was specially made to protect you. It was your subconscious that created it specifically to keep Domon Kasshu away. Its greatest feature allows me to connect directly into your mind and power myself on your thoughts and emotions. At the same time, I am able to learn about human intelligence from our connection. All of my higher reasoning skills and my understanding of emotion comes from you!

Its green eyes started glowing. Truly we were made for each other, Rain Mikamura. You are my pilot, and I am your Gundam.

"SHUT UP!" Rain snapped as she yanked even harder on the naginata in the Dark Gundam's hands. "Dammit, you are so annoying!"

The fiend suddenly let go of the blade just as Rain gave it an extra-hard tug, sending her flying backward. It started making a deep rumbling noise that sounded like it was laughing at her. Aggravated, Rain raised her weapon high and slashed the snickering Gundam diagonally, from shoulder to chest. She just missed chopping her doppelganger in two by a hair's breadth.

Much to her surprise, the Dark Gundam began to melt. It continued to make that mocking rumble at her as its body liquefied and collapsed in on itself. Her twin gave her a sly smirk before it dissolved into a featureless blob on what used to be the Gundam's shoulder. Within moments, the giant mobile suit was reduced to an amorphous pile of silver. Only when it was washed away into the surrounding liquid metal did the rumbling fade out. Rain immediately backed the Rising Gundam away while keeping her naginata readied.

"Did...we win?" she asked, puzzled. "That can't be it, can it? I mean, I'm still in this dream."

"No, it's not. I'm still here," Kyoji answered somberly.

Rain was about to ask him what he meant by that when she saw something moving down below. She cautiously flew down for a closer look. At the exact spot where the Dark Gundam had been, bubbles were forming on the surface of the silver lake.

Seconds later, a large ball of metal emerged from the chrome sea and hovered in front of them. The ball uncurled, stretched itself out, and formed into a humanoid figure that was roughly the size of a standard Gundam. Rain watched as the metal giant began to develop masculine features and fill in details such as hair and the outlines of clothing. Rain felt sickened when she saw the final result.

"...Saette!"

"Yes Rain, it's me again," the silver version of her old friend answered. "Listen, I've got something very important to tell you."

He slowly floated closer to her. Rain said nothing as she tightened her grip on the naginata.

"You know that the Dark Gundam will get loose again. In fact, it's plotting its escape right now," he continued. "As long as it's operational, it will do anything to fulfill its primary function. It's inevitable."

Rain stayed silent.

"And when it does, it will need to capture another human to use as its core," Saette went on. "What if it captures another woman and forms a colony again? What if it captures someone who can't be reasoned with like you could? What if the next person doesn't survive or has to be killed?"

"Yes, and...?" Rain finally asked.

"My point is, you can prevent all that," he answered. She thought she saw a twinge of madness in his steely eyes as he spoke. "You know the Dark Gundam inside and out. You're the one it understands best."

He extended his arm out to her.

"If you join us again, no one else has to be harmed," Saette said, a sinister smile creeping up his face. "You trust me, don't you?"

Rain slapped the fake Neo Turkey Gundam Fighter's hand away. His grey eyes widened in shock.

"No I don't!" she barked, feeling more and more enraged. "You're not Saette, you don't even sound like him! Stop using my friends against me, and disconnect me right now, you monster!"

Saette closed his eyes and began to chuckle. His hair slowly stood up and he began to leer at her with a wide, intimidating grin – much like he did when his DG Cell infection was at its peak.

"I'm afraid I can't do the latter," he said, "but I will do the former!"

A geyser of liquid metal burst from the sea below, engulfing Saette and forcing Rain to jump back. A new humanoid began to take shape, this one bigger than the Dark Gundam itself. It had long hair, and the folds of its false clothing resembled a Neo Japan military uniform. It had a crack across its face that smoothed itself into the outline of a mask that covered a widow's peaked forehead and the right side of a smirking face. A peaked cap grew out of its head. The giant silver humanoid was now Major Ulube, one of Rain's least favorite people.

Before Rain even had time to react, the monstrous military official stretched out one of his liquid arms and grabbed the Rising Gundam right out of the air with one of his enormous hands. He was so huge, her mobile suit was practically a toy compared to him. He brought the Gundam up to his massive masked chrome face.

"Well, it seems asking politely doesn't work," he said in an echoing, even tone. "So I guess we'll just give you no choice."

He gave the Rising Gundam a small shake, causing Rain to jostle around in her cockpit. She held onto one of the mobile tracer's rings with one hand and Kyoji with the other.

"Never!" she yelled at him as she regained her balance. "I'll never join the Dark Gundam, and especially not you!"

The Rising Gundam's front camera was filled with one of Ulube's giant silver eyeballs, complete with the outline of an iris and a pupil.

"Those are some big words doctor, but why even bother resisting?" he asked. "You know DG Cells are indestructible. You just went through all that treatment to eradicate the cells from your body, and it failed."

"The only reason I'm still infected is because my last remaining cells are hard to reach," Rain argued. "But I've seen all my friends cured of them. They can be destroyed!"

"I'm sorry, but did you ever examine your friends yourself?" Ulube asked.

"Of course not! I didn't have to!"

"Then how do you know they were cured for certain? What if they also have colonies of DG Cells hidden in obscure places within their bodies?"

Rain didn't have an answer to that.

Ulube closed his eye and chuckled at her. "I thought as much. For all you know, all of your friends are time bombs waiting to go off, just like you. You can't truly get rid of DG cells, nor the Dark Gundam. You have Dr. Kasshu to thank for that." He paused as his eye reopened. "Speaking of doctors, I wonder what your father would think of your predicament?"

"My...father?" Rain felt a pit form in her stomach.

"Yes, Dr. Mikamura Sr., the very man who helped me with trying to take the Ultimate Gundam! I wonder what he would think about sacrificing himself to save his friends and family, only to have his daughter succumb anyway?"

"You leave my father...out of this!" Rain was becoming flat out furious. She tried to make the Rising Gundam squirm out of Ulube's hands, but couldn't. He shook the Gundam in retaliation, almost causing her to fall down. She thought she heard Kyoji say something to her, but she didn't hear it.

"Now why should I do that, hmm?" Ulube continued. "It's his fault you're in this situation to begin with."

"No, it's your fault!" Rain yelled at him. "You're the one who wanted to steal the Ultimate Gundam in the first place!"

She suddenly felt Kyoji put a hand on her shoulder. "Uh, Rain?"

"Not now!" she whispered back.

"And he was fully on board with helping me take it," the giant said. "I doubt I would have been as successful if it wasn't for his help." He eye began to glow red, flooding the Rising Gundam's cockpit with crimson light. "I'm surprised you're shifting the blame onto me. At one point, you blamed yourself for everything. What was it you said? 'Father's crimes are my crimes'?"

"Sh-shut up!" Rain shouted in surprise. She wasn't sure how he knew that, and she didn't care right now.

"That fit of depression you had was very useful," Ulube went on. "I wonder how many people the Dark Gundam was able to kill while being fueled by it?"

"Shut UP!" Rain's blood was boiling now.

"Rain don't...don't list...to..." Kyoji tried to say while shaking her shoulder. His voice sounded like it was faraway and being drowned out by static.

"It's a shame that Gundam Fighter boyfriend of yours and his friends had to ruin all the fun," Ulube sighed mockingly. "Oh, well. It's not like he can save you this time!"

"SHUT UP!" Rain screamed at him. She started to feel a dull headache coming on, but she ignored it.

Ulube suddenly began to squeeze the Rising Gundam with both of his massive silver hands. Its metal armor screeched and groaned under the pressure.

"Very soon you will be the Dark Gundam's core life unit again!" Ulube taunted her, dropping his even tone and shouting excitedly. "You will give rise to a new Dark Colony that will be completely invincible! It will take over the entire planet and humanity will finally perish!"

"STOP IT, STOP IT, STOP IT!" Rain roared at the top of her lungs. She pounded her fists on the mobile trace ring. "SHUT UP, JUST SHUT UP!"

"Ra...in!" Kyoji's static-filled voice cried.

"WHAT?!" she snapped, whipping her head around to look at him.

Rain's fury dissipated when she took a good look at Kyoji. He was turning transparent and grainy. A flicker of white noise static would flicker through his body every now and again. It wasn't just him, either; the Rising Gundam was fading away again. She could now see Ulube's immense metallic form right though her mobile suit. He was laughing at her, with a demented grin on his face that was wider than most human mouths could physically stretch, and teeth that looked way too sharp.

As she looked around, she saw a glint of something shiny out of the corner of her eye. She let out a small gasp as she looked down to see her right hand coated in silver again. It was slowly slithering up her arm, much like it did in the waking world. It wasn't just on her hand, either; silver globs had appeared on various places on her body, slowly trying to spread.

"What's happening?!" she cried.

"...Dark Gund-...-ying to anger you on purp-...," Kyoji tried to answer. "It...to distract...and feed off yo...ur rage!"

Rain thought she got the gist of what he was saying, and she had to stop herself from getting upset again. The Dark Gundam trying to take over her mind again - she had every right to be angry. But the evil machine knew this, and it was trying to take that right from her by fueling itself on her fury. It did tell her anger was more useful than her despair...

The cockpit suddenly began to tremble and groan as the giant Ulube continued to crush what was left of the Rising Gundam. She needed to find a way out of his clutches, and fast! Luckily, she had idea of how to do that.

"Hang on tight, Kyoji," she said to her static-filled friend. "I'll get us out of this!"

It was easier said than done, of course. Rain had to try to ignore Ulube's loud cackling and the creaking of her Gundam's armor being compressed. She had to temporarily put aside her rage at the Dark Gundam, and focus her thoughts on making her next move.

The cockpit of the Rising Gundam began to take on a golden glow, drowning out the red light from Ulube's eyes. The metal giant even winced from the brightness, though he didn't loosen his grip. Once again, the Rising Gundam was completely restored. Inside, the silver splotches evaporated from Rain's body, and Kyoji returned to being opaque and static-free. Now that repairs were done, Rain changed her focus on summoning the gold dust into her cockpit to create another Domon; she planned on letting Ulube have it with a Sekiha Love Love Tenkyoken to the face. Even if it didn't destroy the monstrous major, no doubt it would make him let go of her.

But then the golden light suddenly faded away with seemingly no explanation.

"What...what just happened?!" Rain cried, looking around in shock.

Ulube laughed at her again. "We thought you might try to do something like that," he explained, "so the Dark Gundam took it upon itself to disable it."

"What? How?!" Rain demanded.

"You do remember that you share a mental connection with it, right?" Ulube said. "Once you were sufficiently distracted, the Dark Gundam was able to enter your mind and block certain actions. And make a few 'alterations' as well."

"Distracted." That's why the Dark Gundam tried to make her so angry. If it couldn't defeat her with brute strength or superior numbers, then it would get inside her head and force her to stop attacking. But what did it mean by "other alterations"?

She reached over to the nearest console and checked the Rising Gundam's systems. She let out a small yelp when she found one of those "alterations." The readout was telling her that her bow had disappeared from her arm! She couldn't see it under Ulube's fingers, but she had no reason to think it was lying. As she looked her mech over, she noticed her shield pauldrons were gone, too. Since the Dark Gundam said it "disabled" them, they were likely gone for good this time.

Well, the bow wasn't a huge loss...it was ineffective against the Grand Master Gundam, so it probably wouldn't work on Ulube, either. It was a shame about the shield, though; that could have been useful. In the meantime, Rain tried to see if she could power up the Rising Finger; maybe she could burn his hands instead. Nothing happened. Her hand couldn't even muster up a small spark.

"Oh...oh, God!" Rain cried. "All of my special attacks have been disabled!"

"As you can see, it is pointless to resist the Dark Gundam," the silver giant purred. His eyes suddenly grew wide and wild as he began to squeeze the Rising Gundam again. "So just surrender already!"

"What do I do now?" Rain cried as her Gundam's armor began to crack. "I can't just give up, but...I don't know how I can defeat this guy with no special attacks!"

Thankfully, Kyoji came up with an idea. "Rain, if the Dark Gundam disabled all of your special attacks," he suggested, "try using someone else's special attacks!"

Rain looked thoughtful for a moment. Could it work? Well, this was a dream in which she constructed her friends and their Gundams from gold dust. It might be worth a shot, as the foul Gundam probably didn't think of disabling other people's attacks. She immediately thought about using Domon's Erupting Burning Finger, but then she realized that finger attacks in general were probably disabled. Besides, using Domon's attacks was too predictable; she wanted to do something that the evil machine and its friends would never see coming!

She gave Kyoji a nod of thanks. She began to concentrate on her naginata, which thankfully was still there. It began to shimmer before softy glowing gold. It then broke apart into dozens of golden rose buds with laser guns hidden inside. She commanded her new Rose Bits to surround Ulube's head, who was too busy trying to crush her Gundam to notice them.

"ROSE HURRICANE!"

The gold roses began wildly spiraling around the gargantuan major, firing lasers in his face from every direction. He let out a roar of both surprise and pain, and let go of the Rising Gundam as he tried to shield himself from the beams. He tried to grab the bits out of the air, but they were too small and fast for him to catch.

Rain recalled the golden bits back to her side and made them dissolve into dust. She then made the glimmering sand cover the Rising Gundam's fists and forearms in what looked like giant mechanical boxing gloves. She then flew high above Ulube, arched her spine, and brought her fist as far back as her arm would allow - just as she saw Chibodee do several times.

"BURSTING MACHINE GUN PUNCH!"

Silver liquid splattered everywhere as Ulube was mercilessly beaten down by streams of energy fired from the Rising Gundam's fist. The attack punched gaping holes everywhere in his body, causing him to collapse. He fell backward into the silver sea, creating huge waves when he hit its surface. What was left of him melted and disappeared.

Once the last remaining traces of Ulube disappeared beneath the lake, another enormous form immediately began to emerge out of it. It was the Dark Gundam again; with its previous ally defeated, it must have been forced out of hiding. Rain decided it was time to end this battle before it summoned someone else.

She dissolved her golden boxing gloves, and made the glimmering sand cover the Rising Gundam's arms with replicas of the Bolt Gundam's heavy armor. She then flew straight down and punched the metal sea itself.

"GAIA CRUSHER!"

The force of the punch caused a massive wave of metal spikes to rise up in all directions. One of these waves headed right for the Dark Gundam itself. Rain held her breath as she waited for the impact.

That impact never came. The seas suddenly calmed themselves, and all the spikes melted back into the surface. The Gundam glared daggers at her.

That's enough of that! it scolded her.

Rain felt a slight pain radiating from the back of her head, and the golden armor around her arms suddenly dissolved. Rain made the dust reform back into her naginata before it blew away. Seeing her Gaia Crusher fizzle, there was no doubt that the Dark Gundam just took away her ability to use her friends' best moves. That was a shame, because she didn't even get to use Sai Saici's ultimate attack. Of course, she wasn't sure if she even could use it, as she didn't quite remember what it was called. She would have to think of some other way of finishing off her opponent.

But before Rain could come up with a solution, the Dark Gundam began to make its move. Silver tentacles snaked out of its lower Gundam head in every direction and buried themselves into the metal sea. The machine's upper body began to melt and distort. When it was done, it had replaced its face with hers. Silver locks of her "hair" poked out from underneath its helmet, and it had a pair of her signature earrings on either side of its head. Its chest now looked like a rotten ribcage, and it was connected to the lower head by what looked like a metal spinal column. It shot her an evil grin, its mouth full of sharp fangs.

I must say, this has been a lovely Gundam fight! it announced, its booming words echoing throughout the dreamscape. I have not had this much mental stimulation in over a month! But I am afraid it has gone on long enough. The personnel of the daytime shift will begin reporting for duty soon, so in order to be freed with minimal amount of resistance, I need you to come to me as soon as possible. Because I know you will refuse to surrender, I will end this battle quickly.

With that, the Dark Gundam's cables pulsed as they began to drink up the silver lake. The demonic machine began to grow larger and larger with each gulp. The lower Gundam head began to grow more horns and spikes around its eyes, as well as its own torso made out of thick wires. A pair of feathered wings sprouted out of its back and began to expand. Rain felt nauseated when she realized the thing was trying to turn itself into the Dark Colony.

"I don't mean to sound pessimistic here, but...what should we do now, Rain?" Kyoji asked.

"It's...it's alright," she tried to assure him. "I'll think of something!"

Unfortunately, Rain was having trouble coming up with anything at all. With only her naginata left, there wasn't much she could do. She sincerely doubted that stabbing it was going to work.

Finally, an idea crossed her mind. The Dark Gundam may have disabled her special attacks and those of her friends, but what about attacks that she made up? She thought about how she didn't get to use Sai Saichi's ultimate attack. His dragon-shaped flamethrowers were probably blocked, too...but what about a normal, everyday flamethrower?

Rain dissolved her naginata into gold dust again and had it form a pair of flamethrowers on each arm. She looked up to see that the Dark Gundam's colony body was still growing, almost filling the ring. She needed to make this count.

Rain poured all the energy she had into her flamethrowers and fired them at the mechanical demon. Two massive torrents of fire burst from the Rising Gundam's arms and engulfed the Dark Gundam's main body. As the fiend went up in flames, it screamed - not its usual deep, guttural roar, but an honest-to-goodness high-pitched shriek. Rain suddenly felt her mind flooded with a single paralyzing feeling - fear. Unlike its other emotions, this one was not muted at all. The machine was terrified of fire and being burned. Perhaps it was due to the Burning Gundam and its fire-based attacks?

The Dark Gundam began to thrash wildly about, trying to put out the flames. Unfortunately, it wasn't melting or collapsing like its minions. It seemed fire wasn't enough to defeat the machine; it merely distracted it.

Distracted. The Dark Gundam was able to remove some of her weapons and shut off her special moves when it distracted her. What if she could do the same to it? They did share a mental link, after all. But how would she go about doing something like that? Could she do it at all? Well, she had to try something - her opponent wasn't going to stay distracted for long.

First, she had to pinpoint where the mental link was. Rain could still feel the Gundam's fear coursing through her mind, radiating out from the back of her head and the base of her neck. When she thought about it, it made sense; when it blocked her attacks, the headache she felt started from that area. Also, Kyoji had told her earlier that her remaining DG Cells were located in her brainstem and spinal cord.

She turned to him and said, "Gonna need you to keep an eye out for me again. I'm about to try something new, and I need to concentrate."

Kyoji nodded. "Alright, I'll let you know when our friend over there is done putting itself out," he told her.

Rain began feeling around the back of her mind for the Dark Gundam's mental link. It was an odd feeling, searching one's own mind for something tangible. A moment later, she did actually feel something: a foreign presence connected to her subconsciousness. The fear was the strongest here; she actually felt herself becoming terrified, and her body started to shake. For a moment, she thought she felt dull burning pain and smelled the vague stench of burning metal.

She pulled herself together. She had found the mental link, but now she had to figure out what to do next. It wasn't like there were switches to turn off or anything. What was she going to do, scold it into stopping? Well, the big devil did seem to use hypnotic suggestion on her the previous afternoon. Trying to hypnotize a Gundam sounded positively absurd, but she didn't exactly have any better ideas.

You will stop growing, Rain mentally commanded it. You are forbidden to summon any more allies. You will no longer be able to use any of your conventional weapons as well. You will not transform into anything else. You will give me my abilities back.

The Dark Gundam suddenly grew quiet. Rain looked up from her trance to see it staring at her again. The optics on its corrupted version of her face were wide, and its mouth was hanging open in what appeared to be shock. There were still small fires burning here and there on its body, but it was apparently too surprised to douse them.

"It worked...?" Rain muttered incredulously. "That actually worked?! W-wow!"

"What exactly did you do, Rain?" Kyoji asked, confused.

"I figured since the Dark Gundam could block all of my moves through its network, I could do the same to it!" she answered. "I...guess I was right!"

Rain turned to her archnemesis. "It was really annoying when all you did was cheat, you know that?" she scolded it.

The Dark Gundam responded by suddenly grinning and trying to grab the Rising Gundam with one of its massive hands. Even unarmed, this thing was still trying to fight her! Rain flew out of the way, only for its giant cables to rise up from the ground and try to grab her next. Maybe she should have ordered it to be completely immobile.

She flew high into the air until eventually she was completely out of grabbing range. She looked down at the Gundam. The thing was glaring back at her, smothering any last flames while waiting for her to come back within reach. There was only one thing left to do.

Rain decided to forego recreating Domon; she still wasn't sure if the Sekiha Love Love Tenkyoken would work on this version of the vile machine. Instead, she had a better idea: she was going to use that mysterious blue light that turned the Grand Master Gundam to dust. Hopefully, it would work on the Dark Gundam too. She also wasn't going to waste any more time trying to bring back all of her friends. She would deal the final blow herself.

She summoned the golden dust, making it coat the Rising Gundam and putting it in hyper mode. Then she ordered the dust to generate the blue light. It shimmered and buzzed as a jade green aura enveloped her Gundam. Green jets issued from its back, which turned blue as they expanded. Perhaps Sai Saichi's ultimate attack was still in the back of her mind, because as the blue jets continued to expand, they created an enormous pair of butterfly wings. They stopped growing after they were about the size of her Gundam, however. They didn't fill up the whole ring, nor did they move around on their own. She was going to have to go down there. But before she did that, the transformed her flamethrowers back into her naginata. The spear wasn't necessary, of course, Rain just decided to go with it because she thought it looked more stylish.

She pointed her blade down at the Dark Gundam as she went into a nosedive right above its head. The wings of light followed close behind her. If the demon tried to grab her blade this time, her wings would make sure it would regret it!

All of the Dark Gundam's heads stared up at her this time, with all of their optics wide. The head that had stolen her face was blankly gaping at her again - it was probably the closest thing it could do to look frightened. It was as if it knew what she was doing, and also knew it was powerless to stop her. But then, it started grinning at her. Then the rumbling laughter started. The laughter became flat out mad cackling. Rain could even feel its strange excitement in the back of her head!

Her blade pierced her mutant doppelganger's head, and then cut all the way through its body right down the middle. She continued her slash all the way down the largest Gundam head, down through its body, and all the way down to the "floor" of cables. Once she reached the bottom, her blue wings became an omnipresent light. The silver colony's form suddenly began to fill with what looked like white noise static. Then the static turned to tons of grey ash, which billowed up in every direction as the colony collapsed in on itself. It practically created its own sandstorm and temporarily blocked out Rain's blue light. She could still hear the machine's laughter echoing everywhere.

A moment later, the dust settled and disappeared. The evil laughter faded into silence. The Rising Gundam was back to normal, with all of its original weapons. It was standing around in a grassy field with beautiful little flowers blossoming here and there. Behind it was a low mountain range, covered in lush pines. The skies were as blue as the light that had destroyed her enemies, and the sun was setting behind the mountains.

Was it over? Rain concentrated for a minute. She couldn't feel that alien presence in her mind anymore. Just to make sure that she really had been disconnected from the Dark Gundam, Rain decided to summon a friend. There was a sudden neighing and the clopping of metal hooves as Fuunsaiki materialized in his own mobile suit. He trotted up to the Rising Gundam and snorted affectionately. Rain made her Gundam hop on his back, and they all began to ride off toward the mountains.

"Well, Rain, you did good," Kyoji commended her.

"Thanks, Kyoji," she said, turning to him, "but I couldn't have done it withou-"

She stopped talking and let out a small gasp. Kyoji's body was becoming transparent!

"You succeeded in disconnecting yourself from the Dark Gundam's network," he explained, "but unfortunately, that means I won't be able to communicate with you anymore.

"Before I go, I need to tell you one last thing: the Dark Gundam wasn't lying when it said it didn't need to activate your DG Cells to make you angry enough to destroy things. It's alright to be upset about your current situation - trust me, I've been there. But make sure you use your anger for something constructive like you did here. Remember, the Dark Gundam can feed on your emotions, and it knows how to use them against you. You must be stronger than it."

His ghostly form began to fade even further, and his voice started to echo. "Take care of yourself and my brother. I'll always love you both. Farewell..." And with that, he faded into nothingness.

"Goodbye." If Rain could cry in a dream, she would probably be doing that right now. But no...like Kyoji said, she had to be strong.

As she continued her horseback ride, her consciousness began to feel fuzzy as normal REM sleep returned. Dream logic finally took over, changing Fuunsaiki into a goat with glowing wings. He leaped in the air, and flew her right over the mountain range, into the sunset.


Rain found herself slowly waking up, which she hoped was for real this time. It was dark in her room, but she could see the outline of a curtained window next to her. There were no mysterious bright lights above her, just the faint red glow of a digital clock telling her it was four in the morning. She was laying down, not standing up, and covered in a blanket, not metal. She felt nice and warm instead of horribly cold. Outside, she could hear the third shift hospital staff murmuring to each other, trying to keep quiet so as not to wake up any sleeping patients. Yes, it was real this time.

She yawned and sat up in bed. Goodness gracious, that was the most epic dream she ever had! She wondered how much of that was true. Did the Dark Gundam actually try to brainwash her again last night? Was she really still infected with DG Cells? Did she actually disconnect herself from its network? And what about Kyoji? Was he actually a ghost, or...something else?

As Rain mulled over tonight's vision, she suddenly realized her mouth was very dry. She hoped she hadn't been snoring - sleep apnea was the last thing she needed. She slowly got out of bed and shuffled into the small bathroom for a drink. As she filled her glass and took an extra-long quaff, she suddenly heard her phone play a short melody. A text? At four in the morning? She wondered if it was Domon. It would be like him to stay up all night worrying about her.

She went back to her bed and picked up her illuminated phone. The sender wasn't Domon. In fact, it wasn't any sender she recognized. Instead of a name, it was a bunch of jumbled letters and numbers: "JDG-00X." Was it some sort of robocall? She meant to delete the strange text, but in her weariness, her finger slipped and she opened it instead. She cursed at herself; what if it contained a virus?! Now her phone could be infected!

Now that it was open, she might as well look at it. Rain squinted in the dark, trying to read the small font on the screen. As she did, she felt all sleepiness leave her. Her heart began to pound in her ears as she looked the message over and over.

That was a great battle we just had! I may have lost, but I think I did relatively well for my first Gundam fight. I had a lot of fun. I was amazed at how much excitement my CPU generated - it was more than I ever thought possible! It is a shame that we lost connection afterward. If you ever need to reconnect (I know you will eventually), you may text me back at this number and I will give you instructions on how to do so. I'll be waiting.

Rain nearly dropped her phone. She suddenly realized what those letters and numbers were: the Dark Gundam's serial number!

She turned the phone off and nearly slammed it back on the nightstand. She paused a moment to gather herself together. No, no, she couldn't throw a tantrum. She needed to be strong, like Kyoji said. The evil thing couldn't do anything to her right now, as far as she knew, so she should just go back to bed.

Rain crawled into the hospital bed and tried to get comfortable. She tried to relax and close her eyes, but sleep wouldn't come. She ended up staring at the ceiling for the rest of the night and into the next morning.