Gundam 00: Phoenix

The Final Judgment

Pacific Ocean, February 22, Unknown Island near South America

Nena, Flint and Daveral walked up to the destroyed turret from the dense vegetation surrounding it to see fire crackling away while smoke continued to belch out of the ruined defensive weapon that protected this island. All three were travelling light, carrying only their sidearms, ammunition and basic medical supplies that was likely needed should a fire fight occur.

Their Gundams were hidden thanks to GN Particles creating a weak optical camouflage, so nobody would find them unless they went in for a close up. This was needed as the UN Army or the Union was going to take notice of the large GN Particle emissions coming from this island and investigate.

"You sure this can get us inside? All I see is smoke and fire," Flint commented squinting his eyes at the wreckage to see if there was anything truly hidden behind the mask of the smoke.

"Well we could wait for the smoke to dissipate, but that might take awhile. There just has to be something as Nena said, just something," Daveral replied before walking closer towards the wreckage, shielding his eyes, before going in for a closer look.

For a few seconds he stood where he was before he seemed to notice something by his stance, his head raising over his right arm before he continued on and disappeared into the smoke and flames

"Daveral, are you...really?" Nena began as she let out a sigh and waited to see what would happen. "He better find something, because I'm only going through all that if there is a way in," Nena said to Flint who nodded his head in response, who continued to stare into the smoke.

Several moments passed with no sound or response from Daveral and it had her slightly worried. If he got lost in there both her and Flint would have to drag him out, but that's if they could find him. Visibility into the smoke was extremely poor; the thick cloud that continued to rise, and shift with the wind was as if the blackish grey clouds wanted to keep whatever it concealed hidden.

If this did not get them inside they may just have to blast the island until either an entrance point became visible or the entire island became no more if the entrance was that well hidden, but that would take hours, seemed unnecessary and just plain cruel to the plant and wildlife here. Did life here really need to be altered drastically to catch one man?

Flint then called out to Daveral with a rather loud shout, "Daveral you actually in there? Say something at least!"

Only silence replied back to Flint's shouting and the waiting was an eternity for both her and Flint as they got more worried by the second to the point where Nena was actually nervously fidgeting with hands. He really needed to call back to them now or they would be forced to go in to find him, a task that neither her or Flint wanted to do willingly.

"Flint you don't think he actually-"

She didn't get to finish as Flint raised her hand in front of her, "He's not stupid, he would say something to us at least, unless he likes keeping things hidden from us," Flint responded back to her.

She made a weak smile at Flint and gave a slight nod directed at him, "I doubt he would ever keep anything hidden, unless it was personal, but he is more open than most people I've met, even if it's only a few," she said before looking back in the general direction of their attention.

Suddenly a response came out, "I think I found an entrance!" they heard Daveral's shouting through the smoke, muffled, but hearable. "Now get over here, I'll use my voice to guide you in the right direction! Oh and watch out, it starts to descend down the further you go in so be careful and don't trip!"

"Hurray he's not dead! Now we have to walk through the smoke, that's just great," Flint said in a fake enthusiastic tone before he turned to Nena. "Let's go find where he is then," he then gestured for them to move into the smoke cloud with his hand.

Both of them stepped into the smoke cloud and moved forward slowly, trying to avoid any bits of debris that could cause either of them to slip and possibly be injured Daveral occasionally called out to them using his voice to guide them towards him.

The first part of the advance seemed relatively clear, until Flint, who was ahead of her, almost lost his footing with the ground. She heard him let out a gasp of surprise as she could faintly see his silhouette stumbling through the smoke, and almost landing face first into the ground; saved by his arms that barely kept him from making contact with the ground.

"I guess this is where it starts descending," Flint wheezed and coughed upon saying those word before he moved on, although he actually began to move abit faster other then more carefully all thanks to the time limit they had depending how long they could hold their breath in this toxic cloud.

Nena herself coughed several times into her arm while moving down the incline towards Daveral's location. The smoke made it extremely hard to breath and it stung her eyes forcing them nearly shut and limiting what little vision she already had in the smoke cloud and it just kept getting thicker the further she went forward.

I wish I brought my helmet. Just why did it have to be so thick? she thought to herself as the she decided the next thing she would do once they ever got back to the Phoenix, if it was still functioning,would be to take a nice long warm shower and hope she would never have to go through this again.

Daveral's then called out to them and this time his voice it sounded more clearly than usual, "C'mon guys you can make, just a little further I can hear your footsteps from here!"

The urge to start running took over Nena, any longer she spent in the smoke the more she thought that she would pass out from the lack of oxygen or start coughing to death as she sped up, not caring if she tripped or not, a cut wouldn't matter if it meant she could get out of the smoke sooner then later.

Seconds later after she had entered into a run, the smoke began to dissipate and the view became clear with Daveral waving at her being the first sight she saw along with him standing near an opening in rock wall that led a metallic hallway that went in two directions. One went north before winding off towards the northeast while the other went west in a straight line before reaching a door.

"You sure picked up the pace near the end," Daveral commented, letting her she catch her breath while he waited a few moments for Flint to appear and let him do the same.

When Nena had caught her breath she looked up and looked in both directions of the hallway and asked, "Which way?" She looked at the west hall before the north one as she spoke.

Daveral looked at the west hall and signalled for both her and Flint to follow as he drew his pistol, ready for anything that could appear in the base.

"These pee shooters better do something," she heard Flint say who took the safety off his pistol. "I wish I had a rifle, that's something I'm good with," he then stated with a sigh, only for Daveral to ignore his complaints.

Upon reaching the door Daveral grabbed the door's handle and turned to Flint, "I'll open the door, you and Nena make sure it's clear."

Nena nodded her head as she checked her pistol. This would probably be the first time she actually used her sidearm in a real-life situation and not in training or simulations.

"Great, room clearing with you using us as shields, that's fun," Flint sarcastically replied, but gave a nod of understanding and readied his sidearm.

In an instant Daveral opened the door and Flint entered, his weapon raised and went in with Nena following him in. Both of them quickly scanned the room to see that there was a lift, but the screen for the electronic controls had the word 'security lock engaged' displayed in a dark red background.

Everything else in the room appeared fine and there was nothing out of the ordinary; only the lift and its controls made this room interesting in any sort of way.

Nena lowered her pistol and walked over to the controls and looked at them for a moment wondering if she could hack into or not.

Daveral stepped shortly after Flint signalled it was all clear met near the lift and he then turned to her, "You think you can unlock it?" he asked her.

"Shouldn't be too hard if I can hack into the Phoenix's database, and it won't take too long for me to find him once I get in," she told him, with a small sense of pride before she began working on the console's keyboard to disengage the lock.

Inside of the bases small command room Judgement saw the lift on level two unlock and his control over that area was cut off from his main terminal. He slammed his fist on the desk in anger that the three had broken in so quickly before he had everything set in place.

Immediately he rushed over to the military storage locker in the room and grabbed the rifle that lay within before getting ahold of a military grade combat vest that resided underneath the rifle along with a combat knife that he may need. There were a few other items, but he left them, unable to carry them or found no need at the moment.

This was his chance to kill all three of them, and without having to destroy face their machines it would be much easier, however that said, it would also be much easier for them to kill him. A single lucky shot could be the end for him if it punctured a vital organ, so he needed to get the drop on them first before they could retaliate.

Judgment also made a mental note to try and to keep his thoughts to a minimum. Nothing could be worse than having a single thought betray him, revealing his locations or his actions to that Trinity girl who could inform her two squad mates about him. She needed to die first or this would get alot more complicated and may even turn into a game of cat and mouse, and he could not afford to be the mouse in all this even if it was likely that he was going to be the mouse.

After getting the vest over his chest and fastening it, he quickly headed over to the command terminal and began executing several commands to have all information on the terminals here wiped and then issued another series of remote commands to the Legacy to do the same.

"It will take some time to erase all the data, so I need to delay them," Judgment said to himself, as he worked on the console.

A bar appeared on the terminal and showed the estimated time until vital all data here in the command room would be deleted and then nothing of value could be gathered, even if the hardware's memory were to be examined by the most professional tech experts and every bit of code examined. If there were any doubts in his mind that deletion of data would not be possible in the given amount of time then a couple of bullets in the hard drives and terminals should solve the issue.

Taking the safety off his rifle, Judgment exited the command room, sealing the door behind him, to meet his opponents and hold them off for as long as he could.

The lift door opened with Flint exiting first, carefully scanning the area before Daveral and Nena moved up after Flint signalled the area was clear.

This had to be the level where Judgment had taken refuge in, Nena knew this where he had to be. If Judgment monitored his base properly he would most likely be here, where he had control of most of the bases systems.

"I'm glad he didn't take control of the lift," Flint said as he glanced down the hallway that lead straight ahead into an open area.

"You can thank Nena for that," Daveral responded and pointed over to her with his head. "She is an awesome hacker, and could probably beat some of the best guys we got."

Nena shrugged before Daveral signalled for them to move up and she complied. "One of the few things I'm good at, although personally I think your databanks may need a better security system," Nena then muttered to Daveral who nodded his head.

"Ya I'll tell Wesker about that, although you need to tell him personally if he asks why."

Flint then spoke up to her, "Can you hear him, you know with the...uh what was-"

"Quantum Brainwaves," Nena then finished for him in a soft voice.

Flint snapped his finger upon hearing those two words, "Ya that's the one, anyways do you know what he's up to?"

Nena shook her head and replied, "He's awfully quiet, not even a single thought, or word. I just now that he is here, somewhere."

Carefully they moved down the old dusty hallway that led from the lift, trying to minimize the amount of noise they made until they nearly reached the end of the hall that opened up into room with a catwalk hanging relatively high overhead lined with thick metal railings, while stairs leading up to it jus. Several support pillars held the ceiling up while some dusty rectangular storage containers lay scattered across the room. The catwalk in the room seemed to led into a doorway above, but no one where it led into.

As all three of them walked into the room, Daveral signalled for them to stop and get into cover. He seemed to have heard something by the looks of it, his eyes staring to where the catwalk led.

After several moments Daveral turned to them from where he was. "I think that's him, we better be-" he was suddenly interrupted as a quick succession of gunshots rang out and forced the three Gundam pilots to down into cover.

At the end of the catwalk above was Judgement who quickly ducked back into the hall for cover just as Flint fired several pistols rounds at him in return.

Nena had dove behind a metal container during the hail of gunshots for cover before she peeked out from below to get a shot off at Judgment only to immediately be forced back down, several rifle rounds ricocheting off the top, which kicked up bits of metal and dust upon impact.

"Shit, I think that hit!" she then heard a panicking scream to her right, turning she saw it Daveral. The wind looked like it had been knocked out of him, displayed by his irregular, rapid breathing.

She saw him rapidly patting his hands over his chest where he think he had been shot before a second later, he gave a sigh of relief. The bullets had not pierced his flight suit all thanks to the fact his rather bulky flight suit actually had armour compared to everyone else's flight suit, although weaker then what most infantrymen were issued.

A sudden grunt of pain was then heard, causing Nena to turn and see Judgment jerk back slightly from several bullet impact against his chest as he took cover once again.

"Damn it, I knew these wouldn't do much good!" a frustrated Flint remarked, angry at the fact the round did little to nothing against their intended target.

"You can argue that later!" Daveral replied who had caught his breath by now before he quickly moved up behind one of the supporting pillars during a break inbetween the gunfire.

Soon afterwards, Judgment reappeared from the upper entrance and fired a single shot at Nena from his rifle forcing her to duck, the round had clipped several strands of hair, while Flint and Daveral opened fired with their side arms. The later also happened to be moving up towards the stairs that connected itself to the catwalk.

Flint, after seeing Daveral right near the stairs began to move as did Nena knowing the closer they got the more likely they could get a clear shot at him, and be slightly more effective.

"Jeez Daveral, what's with the heroic antics today, I thought you'd be the last one to always move ahead," Flint commented, surprised by his friends action, before he jettisoned his pistol's spent clip and slid in a fresh one.

Daveral, after reloading his own weapon, responded with a whisper so Judgment couldn't hear, "Someone has to lead, besides if I get shot I at least have a better chance of surviving then you guys, if not by much."

"Then what do we do Daveral?" Nena asked in a low voice following his example, pointing out that they were still on the lower level and going onto the catwalk was suicide against an automatic rifle if the shooter wasn't distracted.

Daveral turned to Flint upon hearing this and uneasily said, "Can you run out there and get over there?" Daveral pointed out towards the right side of the room. "Nena I need you to help cover him while I move up onto the catwalk. We're going to try and take him down."

Flint nodded his head in response and, got ready to move knowing what had had to do, even if he was reluctant to do so. Nena also nodded in response as she readied his pistol.

"You owe me Daveral," she heard Flint mutter back to Daveral before he took off across the room into the open.

Right as Flint appeared in the open, bullets trailed after him the instant he took off, the rounds ricocheting off the hard metallic floor as he ran as fast as he could to distract Judgment while Daveral began to move at a rapid pace up the stairs to get onto the catwalk and get a clear shot.

Nena fired off several rounds at Judgment's which drew his attention, causing him to shift his fire at her instead of Flint.

C'mon Daveral hurry up and shoot him already, Nena thought when she ducked back down until she realised now Judgment knew that Daveral was moving in to get a shot off all thanks to Quantum Brainwaves which gave away their plans.

So you think you can distract me, is that it? she heard Judgment say in his mind, picking up on what their plan was before he swivelled around to face the other end of the catwalk and fired a five round burst before a distinct click could be heard signalling his rifle was empty.

A sudden cry of pain was heard as Nena eyes widened when she turned and saw Daveral collapse forwards right onto the catwalk, two mist of blood could be seen erupting from his right shoulder and the side of his torso showing where the bullets had punched through. She could hear him crying out in pain as he tried to get back up, only for the shock and the pain to force him back down.

"Daveral!" she screamed as she rapidly fired her pistol off until it ran dry and instinctively she loaded another clip in and repeated the process. Nobody that she knew was going to be taken from her, not by this guy, not by anyone, her brothers loss was already enough for her.

Judgment, before he could take cover from the hail of bullets, let out a grunt of pain as a single bullet from her pistol grazed his cheek, his head turning to face her in anger before two other bullets, this time from Flint who was now in position, struck his left leg and logged themselves there causing him to yell out in pain and surprise before he disappeared into the passage way above to shelter himself against further retaliation.

Nena immediately rushed up, she could not let Judgment get away with this, but before she could pursue him she had to check on Daveral whose mind was completely caught up with the blood that profusely flowed out of his wounds. Already a pool began to form, with some of the blood beginning to drip off the stairs.

She had never seen him in so much pain and suffering and it was frightening to witness it first hand up close.

Flint immediately came up the stairs and when he saw Daveral, appeared to distraught over his friends condition. "C'mon Daveral you'll be alright," he said as he and Nena brought Daveral off the stairs.

"H-how are we going to stop the bleeding," Nena said with a slight stutter wondering what to do as she had no clue about any sort of medical care to deal with this.

"Apply pressure on the wound first," Flint began as Nena hesitated for a few second before she pressed her hands to try and slow the bleeding. Flint then took out an anaesthetic from a medical pouch on his hip to dull Daveral's senses, and stop his cries of pain before Flint brought out several medical bandages and then took Nena's place after a few moments. "If the bullets still there, then there isn't much we can do until we get him back to the Phoenix. C'mon Daveral, just hold damn it, you're tougher then this," Flint, then continued, his mind now completely focused on trying to stop the bleeding and stopping his friend from dying.

At the moment all she could hear was Daveral's cries of pain slowly beginningto die away, and it had her scared as she raised her bloody hands infront of her and looked in horror, unable to turn away from the sight. This is what she had to live with, being responsible for the deaths of others, and the blood of others would always remain on her hands. Even Daveral's life was at risk due to her when she had not meant for it to happen. Her hands, even if they weren't like this, were always covered in blood and always would be and she hated having to know that fact.

Daveral cries then faded as he seemed to recognize her and Flint. "...guys...i-if I die can one of you...tell mom... and dad that...that I'm sorry...for not...coming home?" he weakly said, his voice trembling with each word.

Flint shook his head. "Just shut up and stay alive," was all Flint said as he signalled Nena to help stem the bleeding coming from his shoulder.

It did not matter to both Nena or Flint if Legacy went down, what was more important was making sure Daveral would be coming home with them and staying with them once he got back.

Limping down the hallway, Judgment slammed on a door's control panel with fist causing the door to open and he rushed inside towards a large cabinet. Quickly he opened the metallic door revealing a substantial supply of medical equipment hidden within.

Admittedly he had spared that Gundam pilot from death by not aiming accurately only because it would buy him more time if they tended to him. If he died, they would have gone straight after him and finished him off while he tried to limp away.

Immediately he grabbed an anaesthetic from one of the shelves and jabbed it into his thigh with a grunt before he looked at his left leg that he had not got a chance to look at clearly till now. The blood continued to seep into and out of his flight suit with the spot growing larger and larger. He needed to fix his leg up before he could go on or the remaining two would catch up to him.

Grabbing what items he needed from the cabinet, Judgment then moved over to the old, worn surgical bed to his left and began to get to work on patching up his leg.

He needed to destroy the data in the command room personally, it was unlikely everything would be deleted in time, there was just too much information. If they got their hands on it there was no telling what could happen to the future. Ribbons' plan must be protected for the future, it did no matter if he died or not should the now likely event happen.

Making several incisions into his leg, he painfully removed the bullets from his leg with a pair of tweezers, dropping the two rounds onto the floor when they were finally removed and began to seal off the wound with the necessary supplies he had grabbed.

After several minutes he finished sealing up the wound and got him with a groan, his leg continuing to burn uncontrollably even with the use of painkillers, but he had to fight through it as he limped over to the medical rooms exit towards the command room.

Before he left, however, he grabbed a syringe filled from the cabinet. He would need this if things came worst to worse for if he could not fulfill his purpose, at least he could die knowing that Ribbons' plan would go unspoiled and maybe, take one of his enemies down with him.

Pacific Ocean, February 22, UN Transport Fleet

"That can't be right," Sergei muttered as he looked at the map on screen to see a communications blackout happening on an island near South America. "Why would their Gundams be all the way out there, this is inconsistent with the previous communication blackouts, are they trying to fool us into diverting forces there?"

"Sir here's the data on the island that you requested." Information then came up on screen, replacing the map.

Scanning over the information, the island contained an old Union base created during the Third Solar Wars, but was abandoned near the end of the war when a large AEU force approached the small base. Ever since then no one has even touched the base since its value diminished when larger, more easily defendable bases could be erected on the mainland of North and South America not far from where the now derelict base lay.

Sergei thought it over for a moment, the base was unlikely to belong to the Rising Phoenix, but there were those two other Gundams that have appeared recently. Could it be possible that this place was the two unknown Gundam's base of operations and the Rising Phoenix was making a move to destroy them? If that was the case it could be the perfect opportunity to finish them all off at once.

Sergei turned his head over to the communications officer. "Send a message out for a Lieutenant Soma Peries to head out with a team towards that island and investigate the situation. Send a second team out with them and have them position at these coordinates. If the Gundams are there we'll catch them off guard," he said to the comm. officer before turning back to face out of the bridge.

Pacific Ocean, February 22, Unknown Island near South America

Walking down the hallway Nena turned to Flint, "You sure it was a good idea leaving Daveral back there? I mean he can't defend himself or anything."

They had left Daveral back in that room once he was stable and no longer at risk of dying from the blood lose. He was unconscious, but still alive and Nena was grateful Flint was around or else Daveral probably would have died right where he lay.

Flint nodded his head while still moving forward. "He'll be fine, especially once we finish this guy off then we can get out of here and get him to a real doctor. He'll pay for trying to kill Daveral."

The two continued to walk down the hallway carefully, following the trail of blood that traced the path Judgment had took to get away. The trail slowly began to swerve to the right side of the hall until it disappeared behind an electronic door.

Instinctively Flint and Nena moved into position before Nena then tapped the control panel and the door opened with Flint going in first, weapon raised.

After a second Nena went in and turned to see the blood trail had stopped at the medical bed with various tools and medical supplies lying around on it. The cabinet lay wide open as well, all these clues signalling he patched himself up before moving on so he would not leave a trail or risk bleeding out.

"He's quite smart, Flint commented, in a slightly annoyed tone before both of them left the room to continue down the hallway.

They continued down the hallway, passing by various rooms and checking them, all of the ones they passed completely empty and devoid of anything useful or that might give them a hint to where Judgment had gone to.

"I'm getting uneasy about this by the second," Nena murmured as her eyes were constantly scanning the hallway from right to left and then back again, unsettled by the fact Judgment could appear at anytime, and anywhere infront of them.

"Well better keep it together when we do find him, I don't want to have to patch you up and then drag both you and Daveral out of here," Flint replied back to her, still looking straight ahead. "Not that I prefer any of you dead," he then added.

As they kept walking muffled gunshots could be heard coming from down the hall causing both Nena and Flint to quietly speed up towards the direction of the sound, the gunshots could only mean Judgment was nearby, and up to something.

Both of them reached where they think the gunshots resonated from and took up positions near the door, one of them on each side, with Flint ready to go in first as usual.

Flint then gestured towards the door's control and raised his three of his fingers telling Nena when they were going to open the door.

Flint's fingers then counted down, and tension built with each passing by second. This would be it, they either got Judgment and went home or they would die trying. There was no room for error or second thoughts in this.

The count then reached zero as Nena immediately opened the door and was met with a hail of bullets impacting against the other end of the hallway and nearly one bullet ricocheted off the wall in into Nena, which caused her to tense up for a second.

Within the break of gunfire Flint and Nena immediately leaned out and fired their pistols in retaliation at Judgment who was in the open when they peered in while she noticed a used syringe on the ground. He had ejected himself with something, but what?

Pain is only temporary. It doesn't matter if you kill me, I'll take one of you with me as it is the last thing I'll ever do! she heard Judgment's voice say to her using Quantum Brainwaves.

What Nena saw as she constantly tapped the trigger, was what could be said to be a demon. Judgment's red eyes seemed to glow as if he were a demon as he lunged towards them, tossing his rifle aside and drew his knife within moments of his previous action. The bullets did not seem to slow or even affect him as he came closer and closer even as the rounds impacted every spot of his body causing blood to erupt from where he had been struck, but it only seemed to make him more terrifying and menacing. Only his head was spared from the hail of bullets which he kept shielded with his left arm; then, he let out a deafening battle cry from his lips, raising the knife, now nearly in position to strike.

Just then Nena heard a distinct click coming from her pistol with Flint's following the same sequence soon after. "Son of a bitch, he just won't go down," Nena cursed bitterly before she suddenly noticed Judgment almost right infront of her, just when she was about to reload her firearm.

Quickly she leapt back to avoid the knife, but Judgment then leapt forward with astounding speed, knocking Flint over who wasn't fast enough to react and had been busy reaching for another clip and then Judgment collided with her, knocking Nena over onto her back.

She scrambled to get back up, as she rolled onto her belly and attempted to raise herself back up only for a sudden stomp to knock her back onto the ground as Judgment pinned her down on the ground and tugged back on her hair, bringing her head up. She glanced over from the corner of her eyes to see that Judgment was going to slit her throat as he brought the knife extremely close to her neck.

There would be no final words from either of them as she saw the sharp blade begin to come down, causing her to wince and closed her eyes, not wanting to think about the unimaginable pain that would come after the knife did its work.