We Met Two Years Ago

by Ben Firebird

The sequel to the story But We Just Meet, many of the pairings will remain the same, like Lacus/Kira and Cagalli/Athrun, but there will of course also be a few new once. This goes on in the Second Bloody Valentine War with quite a few change, like Shinn's sister Mayu still being alive.

61. Chapter 61

I'm am very sorry that this chapter took so long guys, a lot have been going on in my life since we start writing 2015, and not all of it good. Hopefully things should be back on track now.

Chapter 61

It hadn't been long since the final preparations had been done on the Archangel.

Which meant that the white spaceship was currently making it's way over the extremely neat snow-covered landscape beneath them. But with the ship being on level two battle station the crew was simply to busy to really enjoy the view. And the few crew members who did not really have anything to do at the moment, was forced to stay near a certain location on the ship.

And two of these people was presently sitting on a crate down in the hangar, busy placing the last few chess pieces on the board and once they were finished with that, Dearka Elsman immediately reached over and moved one of his white pawns forward on the board.

After that, he moved his gaze away from the board and gave Kira a somewhat challenging look. "Your move, Yamato" he said in a quiet tone that made him sound quite a bit like a gangster from an old black and white movie.

Giving him a somewhat skeptical look, Kira could not help but shake his head at his friend's childish behavior, but having known the former Zaft pilot for about two years now, the brown haired man knew that this was perfectly normal behavior for Dearka.

And while thinking about some of the more crazy things Dearka had done, the Freedom pilot made the decision, that he might as well play along with the whole gangster routine. It wasn't like they had much else to do right now.

And with that in mind, the young man brought his left hand up, and pretended to take a long thoughtful drag from a cigarette. Only to use the same hand a second later to move one of his own pawns two spaces forward.

"Now then, what do you think of that, Elsman?" He asked in the exact same tone as Dearka, then used his own helmet as an ashtray for his imaginary cigarette.

Looking silently at the board for a small moment or two, Dearka reached up and rubbed his chin in a thoughtful manner. "Hmm, quite interesting" he mumbled, before he picked up one of his knights.

Yet before he had the chance to place the small horse figure somewhere else on the board, the enormous white space ship suddenly without any kind of warning make a shape turn to the right. Which of course served, to make all pieces and the board fall to the floor.

"Why ain't that's just great! It would seem like, I will have to order a nice thick cement coat for our chauffeur" Dearka joked displeased, as he threw the knight down to the rest of the chess pieces.

Raising an eyebrow at that, Kira was just about to comment on that remark, when a minor explosion made the entire ship shake violently. "Ahh, damn it, I really didn't think we would be attacked this soon!" The Freedom pilot yelled loudly.

This was after all a pretty clear sign, that somebody had been waiting for this exact moment to attack them.

Otherwise it would have been impossible for anybody to find them this quickly.

And as the two young pilots hurried leaped up on to their feet, they each heard, Miriallia's voice speak loudly to them out over the speakers. "Attention crew! We are now on level one battle station! We got fifteen BuCUEs, and twenty BABIs approaching us in attack speed!" The brown haired woman explained, in a highly serious tone.

Just as the Archangel made yet another sharp turn to the right, obviously trying to evade, whatever attack was coming towards them. Not that Kira and Dearka paid much attention to that, seeing as both of them was currently making their way over to their mobile suits.

And it was about a minute later when Kira was inside the Freedom, powering up the extremely powerful mobile suit, but even as he was doing that, he got in contact with the crew up on the bridge. "Miss Murrue, please try not to kill any of the Zaft soldiers out there. This whole thing might just be some messed up scheme to get us to attack them" the brown haired teen said, while the Freedom was dropped down on to the catapult.

Getting a slightly thoughtful expression on her face, Murrue went over everything, the young man had just said. And finally after a small moment or two, she nodded a single time in understanding. "All right, Kira we will try to avoid hitting them directly! But with the Archangel's weapons being so powerful, it might be difficult for us to just disable the mobile suits. So we'll be counting on you and Dearka to take care of the machines out there!" The woman explained seriously.

Thinking briefly about the Murrue's words, Kira knew that the Captain was right about that. Both the Gottfrieds and Valiants was simply way to destructive to merely disable the Zaft machines.

And not overly keen with the idea, that the only way the Archangel could defend itself, against the many Zaft mobile suits out there, was with the machine guns.

The Freedom pilot narrowed both of his purple eyes, in a determined manner. "You guys, just keep on heading full speed for the coast! The most important thing right now, is that you guys get under water. Dearka and me will do our utmost to take care of all the mobile suits outside. You just keep going no matter what! Even if it means, that you have to leave the two of us behind!" Kira said in a tone that was impossible to argue against.

But that did not mean that there wasn't a few complains about doing something like that. "Don't say things like that, you idiot. There is no way we are leaving you guys behind!" Cagalli yelled loudly. While at the same time promising herself to give Kira a good hard slap or two for saying stupid things like that.

And just when Miriallia was about to share her two cents about leaving the man she loved and Kira behind, Dearka's loud voice cut her off.

"I kinda wish I could say that this was going to be a smooth ride to the coast. But I have this nagging feeling, that the Zaft forces out there, is only the first wave. So if something does prevent us from getting back to you guys, you should get under water as quickly as possible!" The blond Coordinator said, as he tighten his grip on the controls.

Looking silently at the two of them, Murrue got a slightly depressed look in both of her eyes. "Listen up you two! I would honestly prefer if we could all make it back home to Orb together! But if something unexpected does happen and we get separated, the two of you have better make certain that you make it back there on your own. And THAT IS a direct order!" Murrue said in a harsh tone, generally concerned about both of the young men that was like family to her.

Hearing her words, the two friends slowly turned their purple gazes, away from the screen showing the bridge, and took a small glance over at the one showing each other. Each one of them could easily tell from the tone of the voice Miss Murrue had been using, that if they did not do what she told them, she was seriously going to make them regret it.

And knowing that, the two pilots smiled slightly before they once more turned their attention back towards the brunette haired Captain of the Archangel. Where each of them gave her a small yet respectful salute.

"We understand miss Murrue, we will see each other once this battle is over and if not then back in Orb" Kira promised. Then once more grasped on to the controls.

Truly pleased to hear Kira say that, Murrue Ramius, gave each Coordinator a grateful look, before giving them one last order, just as they where about to leave the Archangel's hangar. "Glad to hear that, guys. Now go get them!" The brunette haired woman said.

Which instantaneously made both Kira and Dearka yell out a loud roger.

And it was only a brief moment later, when Kira shouted out five other words. "Kira Yamato! Freedom heading out!" He said. Just as the powerful gundam flew full speed forward on the catapult, towards the opened hangar, with Dearka's Murasame following shortly afterwards.

Once outside, Kira immediately activated the Freedom's Phase Shift armor. Then hurried took aim with the beam rifle, and fired a couple of shots at the closest BABI destroying, first it's head and then the right arm.

Yet as he was doing that, three other BABI's fired a minor bunch of missiles at him. Which instantaneously made Kira throw himself and the Freedom backwards to get some distances from the smaller warheads, as he used the machine guns in the head to destroy them all.

And once that minor yet highly dangerous task was out of the way, he did not hesitate even one second, about firing both of the plasma cannons at the purple mobile suits, actually succeeding in removing the head on two of the machines.

But as Kira was about to give the third BABI the same treatment as the last two, Dearka suddenly appeared from the side, where he hurried cut off both arms on the BABI only to follow up with a hard kick in the chest area immediately afterwards. "Damn it! I didn't think that there would be so many of these bastards!" The blond Coordinator complained displeased, while continuously shooting off the rifle down towards the many BuCUEs on the ground.

Also finding there share number of Zaft mobile suits out there highly annoying, Kira swiftly moved past the light blue colored Murasame. And fired both rail cannons down at the hastily approaching ground mobile suits.

"Yeah, no kidding, Dearka! I wonder if Durandal send half of the Zaft army after us" Kira growled, as his heavy attack on the BuCUEs, made two of them fall over.

Yet before he had the time to find another target, a couple of shots was fired in his direction. And without giving it even a second thought, he instantly used the shield to defend himself from the attack.

And it was only once he lowered his defenses again that he saw where the attack had originate from. Yet the sight of a certain orange colored machine was quite frankly a bit of a surprise for him. "LaGOWE! I didn't think Zaft had any of those left after the last war" Kira said.

Then thought briefly about his last encounter with the BuCUE's successor. Yet with the situation they where in right now, he did not really get a whole lot of time to think about the extremely depressing battle where Aisha Waltfeld lost her life to the Duel gundam.

Once Dearka's loud voice began talking to him over the radio, he immediately shook those drifting thoughts of the past out of his mind. "I'll go show those morons in the LaGOWE just how much better a flying type mobile suit is compared to a ground type! Can you handle the BABIs on you own, Kira?" He asked. Even though he already knew that Kira and the Freedom was more than capable of dealing with the somewhat bulky Zaft machine.

Not giving him a reply right that instant, the brown haired teenager maneuvered the Freedom in between two missiles. Then hurried took aim and fired two well place shots, at two of the BuCUEs, destroying the head on both of them. "Be careful when you go up against the LaGOWE, Dearka. That mobile suit is a lot more vicious and dangerous than a BuCUE!" Kira warned in a highly serious tone, before he reached over and pulled out the right beam saber. Then took off towards four approaching BABIs that was obviously trying to get around him and Dearka so they could attack them from behind.

Yet once they realized that he was now coming right at them, they immediately started firing, their chest cannons and beam rifles at him. But having already expected the BABI pilots to react like that Kira swiftly evade down under the red and green beams.

And before any of the Zaft soldiers, had the chance to curse or get off another attack, Kira increased the Freedom's speed. Which pretty much meant that it was only a brief moment later, when he flew in between two of the purple machines where he in one fluent motion with the beam saber, removed the head on both mobile suits.

And once the two other BABI pilots witnessed just how easily he had beaten their two friends, they instantly tried to get away from him, by flying off in two different direction. But even as they where doing that, they both fired continuously at him with their beam rifles.

Which of course served to make the male Yamato raise his shield to take care of the first two shots and then fly full speed upwards, to avoid a single red beam one of the flight type mobile suits fired at him.

Yet while he continued swiftly evading their attacks, he made the plasma cannons leap forward over the Freedom's shoulders and as he cautiously twisted his mobile suit around yet another red beam. He immediately fired two red beams of his own up towards the obvious leader of the two BABIs, blowing the right arm straight off the purple machine.

But that did not in anyway mean that the BABI was out of the battle. It still had the chest cannon and a great deal of other weapons. Which it did not hesitate in using against him. And as five more BABIs joined the highly dangerous party, Kira instantaneously got over into seed mode, while at the same time activating the multi target lock system.

And watching as the Freedom fired all of it's weapons, Dearka felt a light frown ran over his forehead. "Man, here I am barely finishing choosing my target, and he has already crippled a minor bunch of enemy machines. I really need to have a small chat with Erica Simmons about making me a new gundam of some kind. Maybe one that has twice as many weapons as the Freedom!" He said in a slightly dreamy tone.

Then got the Murasame over into it's mobile armor and took off after the orange ground mobile suit.

The former Buster pilot did however not get very far, before he was forced to change direction when a BuCUE leaped straight up towards him. Obviously planing to cut him in half with the double-edged beam saber located at the very front of the four legged machine.

Yet thanks to the Murasame's high speed, and his own well earned skill in a mobile suit, he had very little trouble getting around the otherwise brutal attack.

Which pretty much meant that the BuCUE ended up with it's back turned towards him. And immediately realizing that the simpleton in the BuCUE had just given him the perfect opening, Dearka pressed the one button that got the Murasame back over into it's mobile suit mode. Where he quickly fired three well aimed shots at the purple mobile suit.

The first two beams destroying both of the back legs on the BuCUE, while the last beam tore off the missile launcher on it's back. And truly pleased to know that this fool would be out for the rest of the battle, Dearka transformed the Murasame one more time and took off after the LaGOWE.

And once he spotted the four legged Zaft mobile suit again, he could easily tell by the LaGOWE's movements, that the pilots inside the orange soon to be trash pile was trying to position themselves in such away, that they would have an easy shot at the Archangel's engines. And knowing that if they actually succeed in doing some kind of damage to the engines it would be impossible for them to repair it with so many enemy mobile suits and who knew what else on their tail.

"Ahhh, damn it all. I have to take those guys out before they can destroy the engines! If we end up getting trapped here then we are finished" he growled softly.

Then instantly without even the slightest hesitation fired two missiles at the four legged mobile suit, frankly hoping to destroy the orange machine completely before it could get off even one attack on the Archangel.

Yet when it seemed like the missiles was going to do some serious damage on the LaGOWE. The blond Coordinator was in for a minor surprise when the extremely fast ground type mobile suit turned around in one fluent motion and jumped right over the two missiles.

Which pretty much meant that the only things the missiles did, was explode against the ground and make a nice big dent in the hill where the LaGOWE had been only a few mere seconds ago.

But as annoyed as he was about missing the Zaft machine, the only thing Dearka did, was narrow both of his eyes, in a slightly displeased manner and give his lower lips a hard bite.

And as he watched the LaGOWE land again with next to no trouble at all, Dearka knew that the pilots of this thing, had seen a lot of combat in the past and that they where far from amateurs. "Damn, I didn't realize that a LaGOWE could move so fluently" he whispered to himself.

Honestly feeling a bit annoyed, that he found this machine so impressive.

That could after all mean that it could take quite a while for him to beat the crap out of this thing and with the extremely dire situation they where presently caught up in, that was definitely not something he had the time for now. "I have to hurry!" He growled.

And while he was trying his best to come up with a plan to beat the LaGOWE, as quickly as humanly possible, he got the blue Murasame back over into it's mobile suit. But before he could even aim the beam rifle at the highly bothersome Zaft machine, his lovely girlfriend, suddenly shouted out a highly appreciated warning to him. "Dearka, behind you!" Miriallia Haw yelled in a tone which clearly showed how concerned she was about his safety right now.

And just hearing her panicky voice, was more than enough to make him fly full speed straight upwards. And it was only a brief moment after that when two powerful red beams flew beneath the Murasame just barely missing the legs. And not overly delighted with the idea, of how close those attacks had been and how much it had frightened Miriallia.

Dearka turned around and saw the two BABIs responsible for attacking him from behind like that. "Why you cowardly bastards! Can't you see that I'm busy playing around with your friends on the ground?!" The pissed off teenager asked. Even though he did of course realized that there was noway any of these Zaft morons could hear him.

So after taking one more glance after the LaGOWE. He rushed off full speed, in the direction of the purple atmosphere flight mobile suits. And with the brutal way he kept on firing the beam rifle again and again. The BABI pilots had no other choice but to change course to avoid getting hit by the many green beams. Yet not wanting to give these guys the chance to attack him from behind again.

Dearka made absolutely certain, to stay on their tail no matter what. But even while he was busy doing that. The young man sincerely hoped that the Archangel could handle that stupid LaGOWE on it's own for now.

Meanwhile not that far away from him.

Kira was using the Freedom's right beam saber to tear his way through a squadron of four BABIs. But once that was over and done with he took a quick look around the battlefield, where he could easily tell that Dearka and him, was far from finished with this battle. "I'm really, really getting sick of this! Just how many mobile suits did the Chairman send after us?" He asked, while using the rail cannons to blow the head of a single BABI below him.

Yet while he kept on taking out one mobile suit after another, it was becoming more and more clear to him, that Gilbert Durandal was absolutely determined to make sure, that none of them had the chance to escape from this no matter what.

"Damn that man!" Kira cursed softly. While seriously wondering how many mobile suits he had send back to the factory for repairs the last half hour.

He did however not get much time to think about that, before another squadron of BABIs started shooting at him. Forcing him to evade in and out between the many red and green beams. But even as he was concentrating so much on evading all of their attacks. It was easy to tell, that these guys was getting more and more certain that they had an advantage over him by the share number of mobile suits they had.

They where getting quite reckless in the way they kept on attacking him. Yet when he smoothly evaded sideways over a couple of beams, the Freedom ended with it's head point downwards towards the ground. And before any of his many opponents had the chance to attack him again, he instantly fired all of the gundam's many weapons. Taking out three of the purple mobile suits in just one attack. And once he noticed that the BABIs was now a bit more cautious about approaching him recklessly, he let out a deep hot breath that made a thin layer of fog appear on the glass inside his helmet.

Not he paid very much attention to that. This short break in the BABIs' otherwise relentless attacks was definitely something he was planning on taking advantage off.

And while feeling so utterly determined to prevent the Zaft machines from getting in firing range of the Archangel. He grab the beam saber again and flew full speed straight downwards. So he ended up not that far away from one of the many BuCUEs, which immediately tried to shake him off by increasing it's speed, not that the Freedom had any trouble keeping up with the ground mobile suit. And once close enough to the machine, Kira swiftly swung the saber out and removed a few of the more vital parts on the BuCUE. Making the four legged war machine fall over quite hard in the snow.

And even though the fall did look more then just a little nasty. Kira wasn't really overly concerned about the Zaft pilot, he knew that the only way the guy in the BuCUE could have been injured from that landing, was if he had actually been dumb enough to pilot the four legged mobile suit without using the seat belt. And Kira seriously doubted that there was any pilot around that was brain dead enough to do something like that.

So after sparing the downed BuCUE one last glance, Kira took off towards the next one, which he gave the exact same treatment as the first. But before he could go after the LaGOWE that was running not that far ahead of him now, he was attack by five BABIs, that was so eager to get him that the almost hit the second BuCUE he had just taken out.

And it was only thanks to the Freedom's high speed that he was able to get above the now two legged mobile suit. And thereby use the shield to prevent the BuCUE pilot from getting kill by his own comrades.

"Damn it, these guys are crazy!" He shouted, seriously having a tough time believing, that these Zaft pilots would go so far, as to murder one of their owns to beat him.

Yet knowing that he could not keep hanging around there forever, Kira hurried placed the right beam saber back where it belonged then pull out the beam rifle instead. Which he immediately aimed upwards and fired two quick shots at the BABIs. Destroying the head on two of the enemy mobile suits. Thereby making the rest of them back off slightly, which was an opportunity he instantly used to get away from the wrecked BuCUE, before the last three BABIs could start shooting at him again.

And once he got up in the same altitude as the BABIs, he swiftly kicked the beam rifle out of the closed mobile suit's hand. Only to throw himself backwards a brief moment later, while at the same time using the BABI's one purple eye, as target practice for his own hand-held long range weapon.

But even with that threat out of the way. The brown haired teenager did of course realized that this fight was far from finished.

With the incredible large amount of Zaft mobile suits presently in the area. Kira felt pretty certain, that they would be fighting the entire way to the coast. "Mir, how far are we from the sea?" He asked the girl, while trying to get some much needed air back down into his lungs.

He did however not get time to wait for Miriallia to give him a response. Before his two current opponents, continued with their extremely violent assault. "It will still take us about one and a half hour before we get there. So please hold on Kira, and please do look after, Dearka?!" The girl requested concerned.

Hearing her ask that a brief smile ran over Kira's lips. "I will Mir trust me, I will. I'll look after all of you" he growled with a great deal of determination in his voice, with that said, it only took a few minor seconds before Kira was once more fighting with the many Zaft mobile suits Chairman Durandal had send to after them.

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At the same time back on board the Archangel.

Lieutenant Amagi was getting quite worried over how the battle was going outside. If anybody asked him, he could honestly say that it looked liked both master Kira and Elsman was having a tough time fighting against the large amount of Zaft mobile suits currently chasing them.

It frankly did look like there was no end to the BABIs and BuCUEs outside. And as another explosion shook the entire space ship, he looked up at the Captain with a deep panicky expression on his face. "Captain if we continue holding back like this, they are definitely going to get us soon or later, we have to fight back for real or at the very least send out the other Murasames to assist master Kira and Elsman!" He said loudly. Then looked directly up at the screen just as the Freedom flew in between a pair of BABIs, where the young pilot swiftly used the right beam saber to remove a few of the more important parts on both Zaft machines. After that he continued straight towards another squadron of BABIs.

He did however not get long to watch Kira Yamato fight. Before the Captain interrupted his concerned thoughts.

"I really would like to help them out, Amagi! But you heard what Kira said early! This whole thing may just be some clever scheme to manipulate us into attacking them! And if Chairman really does have a deeper meaning with all of this. Then there is noway I'm risking the other Murasames NOW! I want all of those mobile suits completely intact when we get back to Orb!" Murrue explained, only to immediately after shout out for the Valiants to be fired at the highly persistent LaGOWE that was still hot on their tail.

But even though Dalida did his best to frightened of the orange mobile suit. The pilots of the LaGOWE did an amazing job wriggling around the powerful yellow shots.

And just the sight of how easy those morons was keeping up with them, even when being shot at, was more then enough to make Dalida narrow both of his eyes in a deeply frustrated manner. And after trying one more time to knock over the speedy ground mobile suit, the glass wearing man immediately turned his attention over on the Captain. "Captain! We are somehow able to keep the BuCUEs away from us! But the LaGOWE is becoming quite a problem. That machine is simply moving to fast for me to disable it. I think the only way to take it out, is by destroying it" the man explained in a highly serious voice.

Not overly pleased by those news, Murrue took a short glance back at him where her expression made it completely clear to Dalida, that she was thinking quite hard about what he had just said. And finally after a few short seconds Murrue gave him yet another order. "Just try your best to keep the LaGOWE distracted until either Kira or Dearka can remove one or two legs on that machine!" The brunette haired woman ordered loudly. Then hurried turned around in her seat, where she immediately told Arnold to keep them in the shadow of the plateau.

But even with Arnold trying so hard to increase the distance between them and the many Zaft machines. It took less than a second before Miriallia informed her that there was a new group of BABIs approaching them from ten a clock, and that they where already firing missiles at them.

"Make sure that they don't hit any of the engines! If they get destroyed THEN we are done!" Murrue yelled. Just as the blue haired man sitting not that far in front of her turned the wheel sharply to the left, in an attempt to avoid taking any damage from the many warheads.

Yet even with Arnold's large effort to get them away from the attack unharmed. There was still a few of the missiles that slammed in to the back of the Archangel and send an earthquake like tremor through the entire spaceship.

Fortunately much to Arnold's well-trained skills, behind the Archangel's wheel, none of the engines was hit during the assault. Yet as luck would have it, they did end up losing about three or four of the rear machine guns.

Which unfortunately meant that they where now that much more open to be attacked from behind, seeing as the machine guns really were their best defense against missile attacks.

And once the ship finally stopped shaking, Murrue immediately shouted out a few highly important orders to the crew. "Arnold, please try your best to make sure that we don't take anymore missiles hits! Miriallia give me a damage report! How many of the rear weapons do we have left!?" Murrue loudly asked the girl sitting behind her, seriously hoping that they still had enough weapons left to defend themselves the rest of the way to the coast. Yet the answer Miriallia gave her did not really make her feel like leaping up from her seat and dance around in joy. Quite the opposite actually.

"Over half of our machine guns, have already been taken out Captain. And a few of the rear warhead launchers are gone too! Fortunately neither the Gottfrieds or the Valiants have taken any serious damage!" The brown haired girl explained. Quite frankly feeling somewhat relieved, that they still had the Archangel's more powerful weapons.

But with them being in the kind of situation, where they where trying not to kill any of their opponents outside. Those weapons didn't really have a whole lot of use at the moment, but there was of course the possibility that they might need them later on. before they could reach the coast. Who knew there might be an entire fleet of Zaft land battleship just waiting for them at their destination.

If the Zaft forces pursuing them really had prepared a trap of some kind further ahead of them, there was frankly no denying that they would have a better chance of defeating it if most of the Archangel's weapons was still function like they where suppose to.

Miriallia did however not get long to worry about what other challenges, Zaft had in store for them, when Dalida's loud voice suddenly snapped her right back out of her concerned thoughts with even more bad news.

"We got eight BuCUEs armed with missile launchers, heading towards us from the left flank!" He warned in a loud ton, then hurried made the newly arrived ground mobile suits appear up on the main monitor.

And just seeing the formation the eight machine was currently in, was more then enough to tell them all. That they where planing on doing some serious damage to the Archangel.

Which was surely not something Murrue would allow them to do. So after taking a swift yet thorough look around at the BuCUEs's surroundings.

Murrue quickly came up with an idea, that might just beat all of them in one go. "I really don't know if this will work! But fire the left Gottfried in front of them a single time to break up their formation and slow them down. After that, fire it again, at the very top of the hill to the left of them. The snow there does looks pretty thick! So maybe if we are lucky we can start a avalanche, that can knock all of them of balance before they can get in firing range!" Murrue said, sincerely hoping that this idea of her's could save them from a lot of damage.

And it was only a moment later when Dalida carried out her orders.

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Meanwhile outside.

The lead BuCUE pilot, was already looking forward to give the Archangel and it's entire crew a really good beating. But before the smirking Commander could even get his mouth open, and shout out for his fellow Zaft pilots to attack the almost legendary spaceship. One of the Archangel's cannons located above the hangar suddenly turned and fired two green beams in their direction.

Seeing that, the highly confident man immediately shout out one single command. "Evade it, guys!" He yelled loudly, not even close to realizing that he and the rest of his squadron, was falling right into the Archangel's small trap.

But as he got back down on the ground he quickly realized that something was wrong when the powerful space ship fired the same cannon one more time. Yet unlike before, they where obviously not aiming at them but something else, and even though the BuCUE Commander was definitely a clever man, it took him a small moment or two, to figure out what it was the damn ship was shooting at.

"Ohh noo they didn't...they didn't...!" He whispered to himself, with a hint of panic in his voice, just as he quickly swung the BuCUE around, to get a clear look at their surroundings.

And when he saw the great amount of snow, that was now tumbling straight down towards them. Both of his green eyes widen quite a bit as he tried to come up with a way for them to avoid getting hit by the snow.

The white mass might not be powerful enough to actually make even one dent in the BuCUE's thick well crafted armor. But it didn't take a genius to tell, that there was simply noway that even the BuCUEs' could stay on their feet in so much snow. Yet not wanting to be taken out of the battle so easily he yelled out the only thing he could think of.

"Evade the snow and stay on target!" He order then leaped right towards the falling snow in a somewhat desperate attempt to get over the avalanche.

But not all that surprising. That moved didn't really work the way he had hoped it would, which meant that once he got back down on the still fast moving ground, all the snow made it impossible for the BuCUE to keep going.

And while yelling out whatever course he could think of his BuCUE tripped forward face first into the large amount of snow. And once the avalanche finally stopped his machine and the seven other BuCUEs was buried half in snow.

"Ahh damn it all! I can't believe that they actually stopped us so easily, before we could get off even one shot!" The pissed off Zaft Commander shouted loudly. While at the same time promising himself to make the Archangel, and it's crew pay for this embarrassment.

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Yet while the Archangel and it's two lead pilots was fighting so hard to get through the large number of Zaft forces. Athrun was having an extremely serious conversation with the Captain of the Minerva.

"I don't get this Captain! All the Chairman talk about in his speech was how we where going to wipe-out Logos! How the hell can that be translated into targeting the Archangel? The crew on that ship, got nothing to do with that terrorist organization. So this whole mission just doesn't make any sense!" The blue haired teenager said in a extremely loud tone, while slamming both of his hands down into her desk.

With him being so deeply and utterly worried about his friends and family on board the Archangel. Respect wasn't really something he bothered showing the Minerva Captain right now. Pretty much the only thing on his mind at the moment, was to make some sense of all of this.

For no matter how many times Athrun Zala twisted and turn it in his head, he just couldn't figure out why the Chairman would find it necessary to have the Archangel destroyed, when Logos was the real threat to world peace. And he could honestly say that this assault on Archangel, served to make the deep distrust and hatred he had felt towards the Chairman for quite some time now, grew immensely in size. And he sincerely hoped that Captain Gladys could shed a little light on this whole affair.

So while trying his very best not to think about what kind of resistance, the Archangel crew was facing at this very moment, he once more began talking to the woman in a tone, which did nothing to hide how deeply frustrated he was with this situation. "Captain you have to do something! You know as well as me that the Archangel ain't the real enemy here. They too have been fighting to end this war from the begin! So why? Why in the world do we need to attack them?!" He asked loudly, while he saw the faces of his pregnant fiancée, his best friend and everybody else he cared so much about.

Looking quietly at the angry expression on his face, Talia had no idea about what she was suppose to tell to the young man to get him to see the logic, in this assault against the Archangel.

And it was all the more difficult for her to come up with something to say, since she herself did not really understand why exactly it was necessary for them to destroy the Archangel.

The crew on that ship might not be their allies. But even so, Talia did honestly believed that none of those people on board the Archangel deserved to die. They had after all done a lot of good for the world, both in this war and the last one. If it hadn't been for their interference, then Berlin would have been nothing more then a smoking crater now.

And while she for the hundred time coursed Gilbert in her mind for giving them this assignment. It was impossible for her not to notice how the look in Athrun's green eyes was becoming more and more impatient, with every second that went by, as he waited for her to give him some sort of response.

And not really in the mood to have him shouted at her anymore right now.

The silent woman let out a long breath, as she slowly reached up and rubbed her forehead in a frustrated manner.

And just when Athrun was about to say something else to her, Talia hurried cut him off. "Please believe me when I say, Athrun, that I too ain't overly pleased with this mission. I have already tried everything to convince headquarters to cancel this whole thing! But they just repeat the order, and the reason why the Archangel and the Freedom needs to be destroyed" the brown haired woman explained sadly.

Hearing those words. Athrun instantly narrowed both of his eyes then stood up straight. "I see, and just what is the reason Captain? What has the Archangel crew and Kira done, since they need to be kill? As far as I know, the only really bad thing they have done against Zaft, is to run off with the Gaia gundam. But that doesn't change the fact, that Kira was the one who saved the Minerva back at Crete. If it had not been for him, then this ship would have been destroyed by that one Murasame when it was about to open fire on the bridge" the blue haired teenager said with a deep frown on his forehead. Sincerely hoping, that by reminding the Minerva Captain about what Kira had done for her ship. She would be willing to try one more time, to convince the Zaft high-ups that attacking the Archangel was a bad idea.

Yet those hopes was quickly shattered when he saw the apologizing look she was now giving him. "I know what he did, Athrun and I truly am grateful for it. But even with all the good they have done, the Archangel and the Freedom haven't really made it clear for anybody, which side they are on in all of this. And their unpredictable behavior up until now, is the reason why High Command firmly believes that they are a threat towards world peace that can no long be ignored" Talia explained. Then let out a deep sigh, before she continued talking to the blue haired man standing on the other side of her desk.

"I realize that the crew on the Archangel ain't bad people, Athrun. And I might not say it out loud Athrun, but I truly do respect all the people on that ship. But there is nothing else I can do to stop this mission now, I already tried everything I could think of. So it would seem like the two of us just has to accept our nation decision to destroy the Archangel" the Captain said, with a deeply sadden look in her eyes.

Hearing those words, Athrun wasn't at all sure what to do with himself. One of the main reasons why he had let the Chairman talk him in to joining up with Zaft again, was because he had sincerely hoped that by doing that, he could keep Cagalli and the others from getting involved in the second Bloody Valentine war.

And now there was not a single thing he could do, as the grey space ship which he had been station on for so many weeks now, was out to destroy the very ship that was like a second home to him.

So after just standing there for who knew how many seconds. Just staring straight at the brown haired Captain of the Minerva, he gave her one last disappointed look before he slowly turned around, and began making his way over to the door with an unreadable expression on his face, that would make it hard for anybody to figure out what he was going on inside his head right now.

He did however not get very far before Talia call out after him. "I'm really sorry that it has to be like this, Athrun. I realize, how important the people on the Archangel are to you. So maybe it would be best if you stay down in your room until this operation is over" the brunette haired woman suggested in a kind yet concerned tone.

But even though Athrun was as grateful as he could be under the circumstance for her concern. The only thing the blue haired teenager did, was take a brief look back at her and nod a single time at her suggestion. Then continue onward the rest of the way out of the room, without saying even one word to the Captain.

And it wasn't long after that, before the highly conflicted soon to be father was slowly walking down the Minerva's hall with a look in his eyes that made it completely clear to all who saw him. That there was about a million thoughts going through his mind right now.

Yet once he notice Shinn coming towards him in his blood red space suit. Athrun immediately snapped back out of his thoughts. Yet as much as Athrun hoped that Shinn would just leave him alone right now. The huge self-confident smirk that appear on Shinn's face once he saw him. Was a pretty obvious sign, that the red eyed pilot of the Impulse gundam had something he wanted to talk to him. And while he groan loudly inside his mind, the two young men ended up standing directly in front of each other.

"Hmm looks like I'm going to be the one to clean-up your mess!" Shinn said in a proud and confident voice.

Blinking one or two times at those words, Athrun narrowed both of his eyes in a suspicious manner. "What exactly do you mean by that, Shinn?" He asked. Even though he was pretty certain that he already knew the response.

And as Athrun fought down the temptation to give the brat a good smack or two, to knock that dumb smirk right off Shinn's face. The smirk actually grew a tiny bit in size, as the Impulse pilot gave him a reply. "I have been studying the Freedom thoroughly, these last couple of days. So I know just about everything there is to know about that guy's fighting style. Even the one weakness that is going to become the Freedom pilot's downfall" Shinn bragged in a smug tone. Doing very little to hide that he found the shock look on Athrun Zala's face highly amusing.

And while still smiling brightly at how much he had just shaken up the blue haired man. The pilot of the Impulse, slowly went past the shock man and continued down the hall, still with that overly wicked smirk covering his face.

Yet once Athrun noticed that Shinn was about to leave, he gave his lower lips a small yet still highly painful bite, as he instantaneously reached out and grabbed on to Shinn's left shoulder, before he could get to far.

"Whaaaat! You can't be serious, Shinn! Kira ain't our enemy in this war! He has actually saved your life a few times! Is this really the way you are planning on repaying him?!" Athrun asked loudly, now more then ever ready to beat the living crap out of the spoil brat next of him.

Thinking briefly about what Athrun had just said to him. It did not take many seconds, before the highly smug look was replaced by an angry one. And as the red eyed boy roughly bate the hand away from his shoulder, he glare straight in to Athrun's eyes with as much hatred as possible. "I don't own that stupid bastard anything! If it hadn't been for him, Stella would still be alive" Shinn growled out through his teeth. Seriously more than ready to start arguing with Athrun Zala about who where to blame for the blond haired girl's death at Berlin.

Hearing the reason why Shinn Asuka felt so utterly determined to destroy the Freedom gundam and kill his best friend. The deeply shocked look instantly returned to Athrun's face, as he took a small step backwards away from the Impulse pilot.

"You can't be serious, Shinn? It was the nut case piloting the Destroy who kill that girl, not Kira! He is definitely not to blame for what happened to her!" Athrun yelled loudly. Just barely able to stop himself from telling the spoil brat, that it was him the pilot of the Destroy had been shooting after when the Chaos had gotten hit.

But even though Athrun could not even remember the last time, he had been this angry. There was still a small yet reasonable part of him, which was quick to remind him that if he actually told Shinn that, it would most likely be impossible for him to talk the boy out of going after the Freedom and Kira.

Yet the boy's next words instantly made Athrun realize that there was nothing he could say that would stop Shinn from trying to kill Kira.

"I know that, Athrun! I was the one who was out there fighting that battle. And I know for certain, that if that moron hadn't distracted me, I would have been able to take out those three Murasames and gotten her to safety. So in my eyes he is the only one to blame for what happened to, Stella!" The red eyed boy said with a vengeful look covering his entire face.

More then a little taken back by the extremely wicked look Shinn was sending him. Athrun found himself wondering if Shinn had completely lost himself to the poison that was revenge, the way Shinn was acting now really did remind Athrun quite a bit about how Yzak had behaved shortly before he had gone rogue and had gotten kill by the Strike. It was kinda like Shinn and the former pilot of the Duel had gotten completely possessed by the very idea of defeating one certain opponent, which in this case just happened to be one and the same person.

But before Athrun could do anything else, to reason with the revenge possessed Impulse pilot. Meyrin suddenly began talking loudly out over the speakers, telling the entire crew that they where almost at their destination and that Shinn should go board his machine immediately.

Extremely pleased to know, that he would not have to wait much longer now, before he would finally able to teach that bastard in the Freedom gundam who of them was the best pilot, Shinn took one last glance over at Athrun.

"I have to go now. Some of us here do have work to do" the teenager explained wickedly. Then rush full speed past the blue haired man, before he had the chance to say anything else to him.

Feeling more then a little uncertain about what he was suppose to do with himself now, Athrun just stood there quietly for a few long moments, staring in the direction Shinn had disappeared in.

But finally the knowledge of what Kira and the others was about to face, simply became to much for the young conflicted man. "Damn it!" He curseed loudly, just as he slammed his right fist with as much force as possible into the wall beside him.

And even though that honestly did hurt like hell, Athrun did not waste anytime trying to lessen the deep pain. He simply decided to ignore it, as he began making his way towards the observation deck, where he knew that he would easily be able to see everything that was going on outside.

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It was about five minutes later when Athrun opened the door to the observation deck. And even though the three other pilots up there all turned their attention over on him.

Athrun didn't say a word to any of them, he just walked right past them and over to the small screen, which was showing the Archangel fighting hard, to keep a large amount of BABIs and BuCUEs away from them.

And much to his relief, it did not look like the white space ship had taken any major damage yet. 'What the heck am I suppose to do?! I do not want to stand around in here while the people I care about are fighting for their lives!' He angrily thought to himself, as he watched the Freedom appear on the screen where it immediately started firing all of it's many beam weapons.

Yet much to his small irritation, he did not really get a whole lot of time, to watch his best friend fight, or come up with some kind of plan, to help out the Archangel. When the only woman currently up there, suddenly interrupted his thoughts. "Where have you been all of this time, Athrun?" Lunamaria asked from where she was standing beside Nicol.

Taking a short glance over at her, Athrun wasn't really sure that it was wise to tell Lunamaria that he had been talking with the Captain this entire time, about stopping this mission. Especially not with Rey listening in on the conversation.

There was no way for Athrun to explain it, but for some strange reason, whenever he had been near Rey Za Burrel the last three or four weeks. He just could not help but feel like the blond haired man, was keeping a very close eye on him. Which was a pretty obvious sign to Athrun, that the Chairman's most loyal supporter did not trust him any longer.

And knowing that, Athrun had done his utmost, Not to act suspicious in anyway, whenever the blond was nearby. "I had one or two things I needed to speak with the Captain about, Luna" he explained, trying hard to sound as calm and down to earth as he possibly could under these circumstance.

Yet just when he was about to turn his attention back towards the screen, he change his mind and looked over at Nicol instead to see what his reaction was to all of this. But the expression that was presently covering the green haired man's face, made it extremely difficult to figure out what he thought about all of this.

But even when the two friends got eye contact with each other, Nicol only stared at him for a few brief seconds, before he pretty much ignored the questionable look Athrun was sending him, by turning his gaze back over on the small screen, that was still showing the highly intense battle, they where fastly approaching.

Seeing him do that, Athrun just couldn't stop himself from glaring a bit angrily at Nicol for his lack of response to all of this, it was almost like it didn't matter one bit to him that so many of his old comrades was in trouble right now.

And the mere sight of that completely unreadable expression Nicol had on his face, frankly served to make the blue haired man wonder if the old more caring Nicol he had known in the past, truly was gone forever.

He might be the only person on the entire Minerva that was able to tell the differences, but even since he had become a part of the Minerva's crew, it was getting more and more obvious to him, that Nicol Amalfi wasn't as emotional as he had been two years ago. Now he kept most things thoroughly bottled up deep inside.

And Athrun could honestly say without lying, that he was starting to miss the old Nicol he used to know. Pretty much the only times, as far as Athrun had noticed, that Nicol would behave like his old self, was when he was in the company of Lunamaria.

Which was a pretty obvious sign, that the former Blitz pilot was developing quite the crush, on the Minerva's only female pilot, and Athrun really did hope with all of his being, that Luna could somehow make the old more friendly Nicol come back completely.

Yet knowing that now wasn't really the best time for him to be thinking about that, Athrun strongly shook his head a few time, just before he once more looked back at the small screen. Where he could now see both Kira and Dearka more then a little preoccupied with disabling as many of the ground and air mobile suits as possible.

'I really hope you guys will be all right until you reach the sea' the young highly worried man thought quietly.

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At the exact same time outside. Both Kira and Dearka was starting to realize that something really odd, was happening around them. "What the hell is going on now!? We are still quite far away from the coast so why the heck are they suddenly keeping their distances from us?!" Dearka asked confused. Just as he swiftly fired two shots down at the LaGOWE that by now was also trying to get away from them.

Not giving Dearka a reply right that instant, the brown haired teen took a thorough look around, also greatly bewildered about why the many Zaft mobile suits would suddenly cease with their attack. With the large number of BABIs and BuCUEs still nearby it was pretty obvious that the Zaft force pursuing them was still more then capable of continuing the battle.

So it quite frankly just didn't make much sense to him, that they would withdraw now. So while still keeping a close eye out for anything suspicious that could explain the enemy mobile suits odd behavior.

He began talking to Dearka, in a quiet yet serious tone. "Keep your guard up, Dearka. I have a really bad feeling about this" the brown haired teenager said, as he got the Freedom over beside the light blue Murasame.

Taking a short glance at the Freedom gundam. Dearka knew that Kira was right, something was definitely off with this whole thing. From what he remembered from his time as a Zaft soldier, the former member of the Le Creuset team knew just how utterly unlikely it was, that a team as good as the one he and Kira had been fighting, would just pull back, without at least having a really good reason to do so.

So while still moving his deep thoughtful eyes over their surroundings, he gave Kira a response. "Yeah no kidding! I really do have my doubts that they are just going to let us leave after all of this! So they are definitely up to something. The big question now is, WHAT?!" Dearka asked loudly. Then flew a few meters further upwards to get a better look at the area.

He did however not get very far, before Kira call out after him, with some bad news. "It most likely have something to do with that!" The young pilot of the Freedom said, as he used the gundam's beam rifle to point downwards at the hastily approaching Minerva.

Not really sure what Kira meant at first, Dearka swiftly turned around and looked down at what his friend was pointing at. And once his eyes landed on the powerful grey Zaft ship he instantly got a deep pissed off vein on his forehead. "Ahh not that ship! I hate that ship!" The blond man proclaimed loudly, seriously just wanting to rush full speed down there, and rip the Minerva in half.

Hearing those words, Kira had no trouble at all understanding why Dearka disliked the grey war ship as much as he did. Truth be told, Kira too was actually starting to despise the Minerva quite a bit. "Yeah that ugly piece of crap, really is starting to get quite annoying! Fortunately we ain't in a situation, where we need to protect it. So lets head down there and tear of it's engines! That should prevent it from showing up again anytime soon!" The gundam pilot said.

While he watched with wide eyes as the Archangel and the Minerva flew straight towards one another. It really did look like the two space ships, was going to crash into each other.

Yet just as the enormous Zaft ship fired the triple cannon locate at the front. The Archangel made a quick manoeuvre to the side just bearly avoiding getting hit by the three shots and smashing right into the Minerva.

And even though Kira was frankly a bit taken back by that crazy stunt the Minerva had pulled just now. The thought of how dangerously close the crew on the Minerva had come to nearly kill themselves, and everybody he cared about on the Archangel. Was more then enough to make Kira Yamato feel all that much more determined to stop the Minerva right here and now, before it could do anything else as utterly insane as the last manoeuvre.

And while still thinking about how extremely annoying the Minerva was on a scale from one to ten. The young brown haired teen made each and every one of the Freedom's ten long wings leap out, then took off full speed straight downwards towards the grey Zaft ship. Frankly looking forward to really show the Minerva crew what he honestly thought of them.

Of course already knowing what Kira was planning, the blond Murasame pilot instantaneously called out after his friend. "HEY now wait for me Yamato! I do not want to be left out of the fun and games here!" He joked. Even though the tone of voice he was using was actually deeply serious.

And without waiting for Kira to give him a response, he got the blue mobile suit over into it's mobile armor mode and rushed off after the Freedom. "If you draw it's fire Kira. Then I'll take out it's engines, I still got a few missiles left!" The blond man suggest, knowing that two or three of the smaller warheads his machine carried in it's wings, should be more then enough to destroy all of the Minerva's engines.

Not having the slightest against Dearka's strategy to destroy the Zaft ship's engines, Kira instantly shouted out a loud roger, while he mentally decided to take out the Minerva's triple cannon before they could fire it again.

The way the two powerful spaceships was position now, with the Minerva following not that far behind the Archangel, really did give the Zaft ship a pretty clear shot at the Archangel's back side, so if he destroyed one or two of the weapons on the Minerva, he could at least take some of the pressure of the Archangel.

Yet as keen as the two friends was about giving the Minerva the biggest beating ever. They didn't even get in firing range of the grey tin can, when they where cut off by three shots coming in from the left side.

But with each of them having such an easy time evading the beams. There was no denying how highly tempted they each where to just ignore the source of the attack and continue onward towards their intended target.

Yet with the large amount of experience they both had in mobile suit combat. The two Archangel pilots knew better then most, just how utterly dangerous it could be to simply ignore a threat and act like it didn't exist.

So while carefully rolling away from yet another couple of green beams. Each one of them took a quick look around to locate the enemy machine responsible for the attacks, and it did not really come as much of a surprise to either one of them, when they spotted Zaft's more powerful version of the Strike gundam. "Well ain't that just perfect! This whole fight, just wouldn't be the same without having to go up against Impulse too" Dearka complained softly under his breath, while looking the blue and red gundam over.

Kira on the other hand didn't say anything, as he slowly ran his purple eyes over the upgrade version of his first machine. After what happened back at Berlin he knew that the pilot of the Impulse was carrying quite the grudge against him.

And even though Kira would honestly have preferred not to deal with the multi-mode mobile suit currently coming directly towards him and Dearka. He realized that this battle with the Impulse gundam was simply not one that could under any circumstance be avoided.

So after giving his lower lips a light bite, he took off to meet the Impulse before it could get any closer. Yet as he did that the hastily approaching gundam fired hurried fired two more beams at him. Which instantly made Kira throw the shield up to defend himself from the attack, but just as he was about to take aim and start shooting back at the Strike copy.

The Impulse much to his surprise raced right past him, and started violently shooting at Dearka's mobile suit instead of him, and even though the Murasame was without a doubt a fast and highly maneuverable war machine. The Impulse gundam was simply that much faster. There was just no way for Dearka to avoid getting the left leg blown of his mobile suit.

And it did not really help that the Impulse's sudden attack on him took him completely by surprise, Dearka had honestly expected that the only thing the little bastard in the Impulse would be interested in right, now was fighting with Kira. Yet now that he was trying so hard to evade the large amount of green beams, the crazy son of a bitch was firing was at him. Dearka Elsman cursed himself for even thinking that the brat in the Impulse was actually going to leave him alone, so he could disable the enemy gundam from behind, while Kira kept him distracted.

And with the extremely violent way the Impulse pilot kept on shooting after him, it was highly obvious to everybody who was watching this that Shinn was planning on destroying the Orb mass-produced mobile suit first, before he started fighting with the Freedom. And just when it seemed like one of the beams was actually going to hit the Murasame's cockpit, Kira swiftly dropped down in front of the Murasame, where he used Freedom's shield to defend his friend from the attack. "Damn it, that was close! Are you ok over there, Dearka?!" The brown haired teenager asked in a worried tone, as he lift the beam rifle and immediately started shooting at the Impulse to get it away from the damage Murasame.

Quickly shaking his head a few times in an attempt to get over how close he had came to just getting killed, Dearka did his best to ignore the great amount of sweat that was currently making it's way down his face.

And as he looked out at the back of the Freedom, he saw that Kira was still busy keeping the Zaft machine at bay. "Yeah I'm all right Kira...I was just caught a little of guard when he started attacking me" Dearka explained in a heavy tone, while he tried to get some much needed oxygen down in to his lungs.

Still keeping careful watch out for the Impulse, Kira thought hard about how the last few minutes evolved. It did not really take much of a genius to tell that the stupid little brat piloting the Impulse, was absolutely determined to get rid of Dearka first, before the real fight between the two of them could begin. And seriously not wanting to lost his second best friend, Kira took a small glance over at the Murasame. And even as he did that Kira simply could not help but think a brief moment or two about how Asagi and Tolle, had gotten killed two years ago.

But knowing that now wasn't really the best time, for him to be thinking about that, Kira quickly shook those thoughts out of his mind as he began talking to his fellow pilot and friend, in a soft yet still understandable tone.

"Dearka...please head back to the Archangel...with the way he is fighting now, I do not believe he will stop targeting you until he is certain that you can no long interfere in the battle between him and me" Kira said. Doing his best to sound as reasonable as possible right now.

Feeling more then a little unsure if he had actually heard Kira correct. Dearka blinked a few times as he moved a bit closer to the Freedom momentarily forgetting that doing something like that wouldn't enable him to understand Kira any better over the radio. "Please tell me that you didn't just say that, Kira? You don't honestly think, that I'm just going to turn around and leave you to fight this damn nut case on your own?!" The blonde man asked. Extremely pissed that his friend would even suggest something like that in the first place.

Quickly firing a few more shots in the direction of the Impulse, Kira took yet another small glance, back at the light blue Murasame, floating around not that far behind him. "I know that you really want help, Dearka! But this guy is seriously out for blood. And there is no reason why, we should both risk our lives fighting this guy"

Hearing that highly ridiculous reason why Kira wanted him to leave, it was impossible for Dearka to deny how utterly tempted he was to give the Freedom gundam a good hard punch in the back, to really show Kira what he thought about everything he had just said.

Yet realizing that with the Impulse still close by, it would most likely be a bad idea to do something like that.

So in the end Dearka just had to settle for yelling a bit at Kira instead of beating the crap out of him and the Freedom."Of course there is a reason for me to stay, you moron! I already lost more then enough friends, in the last war. And there is no way in hell I'm losing another one. So as long as my mobile suit can still fight! I'm NOT going anywhere Kira Yamato and that's final!" The blonde man angrily explained. Using a tone of voice, which made it absolutely clear to Kira that there was no way that he was changing his mind about this.

Using a brief moment or two to go over everything Dearka had just said. The pilot of the Freedom gundam was extremely grateful that his fellow pilot and friend was so utterly determined to help him out. But with the overly fierce way the crazy bastard in the Impulse kept on trying to get past him, so he could destroy the blue Murasame, Kira knew that Dearka's life was in serious jeopardy in this battle.

But knowing that there was not one thing he could say, that would convince Dearka to willingly retreat. Kira thought hard about what in the world he could do, to get Dearka away from the battlefield and out of harm's way. Should anything happen to Dearka now, Miriallia would most likely never forgive him. And with that in mind Kira gave his lower lips a light yet painful bite as he fired a few more shots after the Impulse.

"I know that you are more then capable of handling yourself against most opponents, Dearka. And I have really been glad to have you covering my back since we left Orb! You really are one of my best friends, Dearka Elsman! Which is why I'm really, really sorry about doing this" Kira said in a low somewhat shameful tone. just as he swiftly whirled around and fired first one carefully aimed shot at the Murasame, blowing off the right leg on the blue colored war machine he had fought along side, so many times up until now.

Then while fighting down the deep guilt, the sadden brown haired teen, hurried lifted the rifle and fired one more shot. This time removing the right arm on the ally mobile suit, before Dearka had anytime to react or get over the huge shock Kira had given him when he had first destroyed the leg.

"Now your machine can't fight any longer, Dearka. So LEAVE!" Kira order harshly, as he grab the right beam saber and took off to meet the Impulse, that by now was coming full speed straight towards him, with it's own close combat weapon out and ready to strike.

And as Dearka watched the Freedom and Impulse slammed their beam sabers together with as much force as possible.

The Murasame pilot narrowed both of his purple eyes in a deeply pissed off fashion. As he took a quick look over the large amount of damage Kira had made on his machine a few seconds ago. And honestly having no idea about how to even begin to describe, how angry he was at Kira right now.

The blonde haired Coordinator watched, as the two powerful mobile suits fought fiercely to overpower one another. "Damn you, Kira! If the moron in the Impulse doesn't kill you! THEN YOU CAN BE DAMN SURE THAT I'M GOING TO STRANGLE YOU!" Dearka shouted loudly into the radio. And once he was done telling his friend that, the highly angry pilot, turned the heavily damage mobile suit around. And hastily began making his way back to the Archangel, still muttering whatever curse he could think of in the heat of the moment.

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Meanwhile back in the Freedom. Kira was greatly relieved to know that his second best friend would soon be safely back on board the Archangel, with everybody else. It was not like Kira in anyway thought that Dearka didn't have to skill to go up against the Impulse and it's pilot, he was after all the one who took out the Raider gundam at Jachin Due two years ago.

But this whole fight was a bit different. After what happened back at Berlin not long ago, Kira could easily figure why the brat piloting the Impulse was so determined to fight him. He wanted to avenge that very girl who had been using the Chaos back at the German capital.

And it wasn't really overly difficult to tell, that he was the other gundam pilot's sole target in all of this. And that Dearka was simply nothing more then an obstacle that Impulse pilot wanted out of the way as quickly as possible.

So the real battle could begin without anybody interfering in it.

And so after trying a bit longer, to push the Impulse's beam saber out of the way, so he could removed of the head on the other machine.

The two highly powerful mobile suits, finally broke away from the intense struggle they had been caught in for the last two or three minutes now. And as each pilot was backing away from the other. They both instantaneously fired their machine guns to keep their opponent distracted, as each one of them pull out their beam rifles, and immediately fired a single shot at the other.

Kira aiming for the Strike lookalike's head, while the crazy bastard was obviously trying to hit the Freedom's cockpit. Yet with both of them so skilled in piloting their machines it didn't come as much of a surprise for anybody watching this, that they both manage to evade the attack.

Not that any of them paid much attention to that, as they raced full speed towards each other. Each one of them, violently firing their beam rifles as they flew past one another. And even though the beams missed this time too. Kira could not help but notice the somewhat reckless way the Impulse gundam was coming at him, it was kinda like the crazy brat, in the Impulse didn't fear anything he did. Like he actually thought he was invincible in this battle.

And even though Kira would under normal circumstance have believed that being overly confident in a battle was major weakness. This time around he could not help but feel somewhat concerned over why the Impulse pilot was so utterly sure of himself.

Yet even while wondering what in the world his opponent had up his sleeve. The brown haired teen hurried threw himself backwards away from the Impulse before it could get any closer to him.

And in an attempt to keep the enemy pilot briefly distracted, while he was doing that. Kira hurried got the rifle up and fired two quick yet well aimed shots at some of the more important parts on the Zaft machine.

Yet what happened next did quite frankly surprise him. Just when it seemed like the first shot was going to do some serious damage to the right arm, on the hastily approaching mobile suit. The Impulse simply yet cautiously lifted it's arm up in such a manner that the green highly destructive beam flew right under it.

And when the second shot, was about to take off Impulse's head. The little brat simply moved the shield up to counter the attack.

Seeing how easy a time his opponent had dealing with his last couple of attacks, Kira's eyes widen slightly in wonder and shock, as he leaned back in the Freedom's cockpit.

"Damn it...have my fighting style really become that easy to predict" the young man mused quietly to himself. Yet even while he was thinking so hard about that, he fired both rail cannons at the Impulse. But almost exactly like before, the Impulse pilot had little trouble avoiding the attacks.

This time by turning his machine sideways so he got in between the two yellow shots. "Your dumb tricks wouldn't work on me any longer Freedom! This time you are going down for sure!" Shinn Asuka growled determinedly into the radio. Then got the beam saber out again and charged directly towards blue and white mobile suit he hated with every last fiber of his being.

Seeing him do that, Kira instantly decided that now wasn't really the best time for him to be thinking about his fighting style. So after firing one more shot at the Impulse gundam, he put the rifle away and got his own saber out. Which meant that it was only a brief moment later when the two gundams slammed their sabers together, first one time and then a second time. And just when it seemed like they where actually going to end up in yet another power struggle to see which one of their mobile suits was the strongest.

Shinn gave the Freedom an extremely hard kick in it's stomach area that send the other machine away from him. And seriously not wanting to give the moron inside the Freedom anytime to recover, Shinn instantaneously moved forward and tried to pierce the blue winged mobile suit's cockpit. But before Shinn could actually bring this battle to a quick conclusion. The Freedom pilot hastily swung his shield out in such a manner, that he hit the lower part of the approaching arm. Thereby changing the path of the saber so the only thing Shinn actually succeeded in hitting, was one of the Freedom's many wings.

And before he had anytime to sulk or complained about that. His opponent hammered the left knee full force in to the stomach area of his machine then threw himself backwards away from him.

And with the somewhat unfortunate location of the mobile suit's cockpit. That irritating stunt echoed quite loudly inside the Impulse and in Shinn's poor ears.

But even though there was no denying that he was quite tempted to race after the Freedom to make that bastard inside pay, Shinn knew that there was no way he could beat this guy, if he just attacked him recklessly without following his carefully made plan.

So while slowly shaking away the few spots in front of his eyes. The deeply pissed off boy gave his lower lips a extremely hard bite which actually made a little blood appear. And as it began to run down his chin, he hurried licked it up before it could get to far. And just the minor taste of the red metallic substance, was all that was needed to get him over in to seed mood.

"You are going to pay! I am going to make you pay!" Shinn growled out through his teeth.

With that said the two mobile suits once more charged straight towards one another. Each pilot completely determined to beat the living daylight out of the other.

To be continued.

Tokyocatgirl101, you asked about when Cagalli and Athrun are going to be reunited. Unfortunately at this point in the story, we are still quite a bit away from the two of them seeing each other again.