Mobile Suit Gundam SEED TWILIGHT

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Phase 26 - Blood for Blood

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"Killing each other?!"

Meyrin felt her heart plunge as the words set in. It was the ever-present nightmare that floated in the back of the mind of any Resistance commander who cared about the greater cause— that the soldiers comprising the force on the battlefield would break down, their own centuries-old divisions coming to the fore, and their guns would turn on each other. Too many operations had failed because the soldiers on the ground could not work with soldiers of another party, another tribe, another sect...

"Is it just the soldiers at the camp?" Meyrin asked— perhaps this could be contained.

"My command is in tatters, captain," Hasid protested. "I've lost contact with a number of units that I can visually confirm have not been destroyed. I fear the fighting is spreading. I cannot say how the force is breaking down if I do not have communications with my officers."

The strategist in Meyrin struggled to the surface, as she tried to decide whether to focus on repairing the current situation or the overall battle. Without Novorossiysk, the Resistance forces in the Mediterranean and Asia Minor would be forced to find a different route to Carpentaria— but a significant chunk of those forces were fighting each other now. And experience dictated that once opposing groups within the Resistance turned their guns on each other, it was next to impossible to bring them back together.

"There has to be something we can salvage from this," Meyrin said, praying that her voice sounded more confident than she felt. "What about the prisoners?"

Hasid's face darkened. "One of the soldiers still loyal to me reported that..." He took a moment to compose himself. "He reported that some of the dissenters are executing some of the prisoners."

Meyrin felt her blood run cold. "What?!"

"They're executing the prisoners?!" Abbey cried. "The prisoners are half of the reason we came here! Captain— "

Those bastards! Meyrin thought, eyes flashing venomously. "Hasid, gather up what men are still on your side and get into that camp. Most of those prisoners probably have nothing to do with the Resistance or Coordinators, and I'll not see them killed because of some ancient blood feud. Get them out of here. We'll focus on the Alliance forces and do what we can."

"Very well, captain," Hasid agreed. "And I apologize— "

"Don't," Meyrin cut him off. "Just get moving."

The screen went dark, and Meyrin cast a furious glance towards the prison camp below as she returned her attention to the Vienna.

Murdering prisoners...just who are we fighting for?!

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"You've gotta be kidding me!" Viveka groaned, as the Savior and Infinite Justice went sailing back towards the prison camp. "They've got the guns of the Alliance up their nostrils and they still can't look past these ancient pissing contests?!"

Athrun clenched his teeth furiously. "Andrei, come in; this is Commander Zala. Repeat, Andrei, come in— "

A burst of static was the only response. Athrun scowled and boosted forward, where he could already see puffs of smoke and flashes of fire around the camp, and he could feel the hatred pulsing and writhing.

"The least we can do is try to convey some of the prisoners to safety," Athrun continued, "but there's no telling who's on whose side...and I have no idea how two mobile suits will carry dozens of people through a war zone."

"That was what we had the choppers and APCs for," Viveka agreed. "And God only knows what those choppers and APCs are doing now."

"The camp is coming up," Athrun said. "I guess we should aim to disable?"

Viveka's sole eye flashed in anger. "No way. They're killing unarmed civilians. That's what the Phantom Pain does. They should know better." Athrun saw in her eye a glimmer of past experience that fed the anger. "And if they're going to do that, then I'm afraid I can't find any mercy in me today."

Athrun turned that thought over in his mind, and cracked a smile. "Understood."

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The Twilight rumbled as a barrage of shells came down around it, and inside the cockpit, Emily stared in disbelief at the report on her screen.

"They're attacking each other?! Why?!" She wracked her brain for an explanation— this was not the first time Resistance troops had found in each other a more pressing enemy than the Alliance, but each time it happened she could never understand the reason why.

Reality returned itself to the fore as the Twilight rocked under another artillery barrage. Emily looked up in surprise, finding a pair of black Windams soaring into battle. An IWSP Windam and a Slaughter Windam charged with a beam rifle barrage— Emily deflected their shots with her beam shield and took off down the street.

"Is it those two again...?" she murmured, her mind flashing back to the young Phantom Pain soldier in Volgograd.

The IWSP Windam lined up for a killing blow and hurled its beam boomerang down at the Twilight. Emily whirled around to block the boomerang with her shield, only to be sent spiraling down into the street from the force of the blow— and an instant later, the Slaughter Windam was upon her with a shower of beam rifle shots.

"I'm not that easy!" Emily shot back, gunning the booster and taking off before the Windam could finish her off. The Twilight darted up the street, firing back with its own rifle. The Slaughter Windam took cover behind its shield, letting the IWSP Windam lunge up behind it and shower the Twilight with cannon fire. "You two are always coming after me!"

Emily slammed on the brakes as her opportunity presented itself, roaring up into the Slaughter Windam's face with its left-hand palm cannon at the ready—

And an instant later, the Slaughter Windam ducked beneath the blow, just in time for the IWSP Windam to bring one of its swords down with a crash and shatter the Twilight's solid shield.

"My shield— !" The Twilight shuddered as the Slaughter Windam kicked it in the back, and Emily jammed the controls forward to duck beneath the IWSP Windam's finishing sword swipe. "You're not the only one who can use a sword!"

The IWSP Windam whirled around, bringing its Gatling gun to bear— only to watch the Twilight slash the Gatling barrel in two with a beam saber. The Slaughter Windam somersaulted over the IWSP Windam as it pulled back, drawing a beam saber and swinging it down with a crash.

Inside the Twilight, Emily ground her teeth as the two mobile suits locked glares. "I don't have time for you two..."

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The chatter inside the Gelzuge's command cabin was drowned out by the hysterical laughter of General Yeager as his hulking mobile armor stomped forward, beam rifles in hand and watching the battle impassively.

"What a turn of events!" Yeager cackled. "The Resistance force fell apart! Our spies had said this was a possibility, but to think it would actually happen...!"

"All units advancing in all sectors, sir," one of the soldiers reported. "Two Gundams are approaching the prison compound."

"Let them have it," laughed Yeager with a dismissive wave of his hand. "If I had known that the Resistance would purge the rabble for me, I would have let them do it long ago. Status of our Euclid squadron?"

"We've lost four units, sir," another soldier answered. "Three Euclid units are still active."

"Pull two of them back to support the Vienna," Yeager ordered. "We have the Minerva on its heels, and its allies are in shock. Contact the Charlemagne— the time is ripe for a counterattack!"

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"It wouldn't be a battle without you three showing up, would it?!" snapped Shinn Asuka as the Destiny spiraled into battle, drawing its anti-ship sword with a flash and looking over its three new foes. The Strike Noir came charging into battle, its own beam swords drawn, with the Verde Buster and Blu Duel on its flanks.

Inside the Strike Noir, Sven narrowed his eyes at the Gundam with the wings of light. Their well-worn plan of attack against the Destiny had produced no results in the past, so it was time to try a new tactic—

"Formation Sierra!"

The Blu Duel and Verde Buster peeled off, guns rising to life and opening fire on the Destiny. Shinn ducked around their shots and backed away, only to throw his sword up in surprise as the Strike Noir charged straight at him, bringing its blades crashing down.

"He went straight through his wingmen's fire?!" Shinn growled. "Is he nuts?!"

The Noir surged forward, hurling the Destiny away and backing up to allow the Blu Duel and Verde Buster to open fire again. With practiced ease, Shinn dodged their attacks— and whirled around as the Strike Noir slid in behind him, swords upraised, to block the Noir's killing blow.

Sven narrowed his eyes at his shimmering foe. "Shams, Mudie, Formation Foxtrot!"

"I don't think so!" Shinn shouted, backing away as the Noir took another furious swing. An instant later, the Destiny rocked as the Verde Buster pounded it with a volley of railgun shells. And the smoke tore apart as the Noir charged, forcing Shinn to deploy his beam shield to stop the blow.

The Destiny quaked again as the Blu Duel slid in behind it and hurled a trio of Stilettos into its exposed back, knocking it forward. Shinn snapped his attention up above, as the Verde Buster launched a volley of missiles— with practiced ease, he redirected them towards the Blu Duel, only to find the Noir upon him again in that instant, slamming its blades down against his sword and throwing him back.

"Dammit, they're good...!" Shinn grunted.

In the Noir, as Shams and Mudie bombarded the Destiny with beams and railgun shells, Sven narrowed his eyes. "This machine may be more than man, but the pilot is not...and neither are immortal!"

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"Why does shit like this always have to happen?!" Auel screamed, as he put the blade of his lance through yet another Windam's cockpit and whirled around it as it exploded. "Can't people get over these stupid blood feuds?! They're hundreds of years old!"

"That's all some of these people have," pointed out Sting, even as the Chaos gutted a Doppelhorn Windam with its beam saber and wheeled around, deflecting more beam rifle fire with its shield and switching back to its own rifle. "But still, executing the prisoners too..."

"And I bet most of 'em were just picked up on 'suspicion of association!'" Auel added, stopping only as the Abyss ducked beneath a Windam squad's beam rifle barrage and answered it in spades with a volley of cannon shots. "You can pick up anyone with a charge like that! Fuck, this was going pretty well until they went all medieval on each other!"

The screen crackled to life as the two Gundams took cover from another rain of artillery. "Auel, Sting, where are you two?" Roxy's voice asked urgently.

Sting consulted the map as the world around him shook. "We're about a kilometer and a half south of the harbor," he said. "Why?"

"Captain's orders. You two are to pull back and support the ship. We're clearing a path out of this godforsaken city."

Sting glanced over at Auel. "Understood. Give us five minutes."

Roxy smiled. "Make it in three. Minerva out."

The screen went dark, and Auel heaved a sigh. "Easy for her to say," he grumbled. "But I figured we'd be pulling out. This place has gone to shit anyway."

The Chaos and Abyss sent one last angry glance down the street, towards the advancing Windams, before taking off.

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The Legend came down with a crash, landing hard on one knee as a team of Doppelhorn Windams down the street pummeled its position with shell fire. The Gaia staggered back behind its buckling shield and took cover behind the Legend as it deployed its beam shields.

"The Alliance forces are seizing the opportunity to counterattack," Rau grunted. "Minerva, this is Legend. What is the situation?"

On the Minerva's bridge, Meyrin was furiously clutching the armrests of her chair. "Hasid estimates that by the time the internecine fighting broke out, his force had been reduced to 75%. Now he estimates that only 30% is actually engaging the Alliance."

Rau glanced back contemptuously as the Windams, as they began to stalk forward. "Certainly, this is attack is lost," he agreed.

"I've ordered the Chaos and Abyss back to the ship," Meyrin continued. "Where are you?"

Rau paused as he watched the Gaia lunge forward, beam saber drawn to rip two Windams in half before they could retaliate. He snapped up his own rifle and opened fire to cover the Gaia as it pulled back behind its shield. "We are pinned down in a thoroughfare in the western city, but we will not remain so for long. Legend, out."

The Gaia somersaulted over a charging Windam, landing with a crash and stabbing with its saber backwards to impale the Windam through the cockpit. The remaining two Windams began to retreat— Rau leveled off his rifle and destroyed them both with ease.

"Stella," Rau said, "we are returning to the ship."

The Legend and Gaia turned and took off with a flash down the street. Rau narrowed his eyes as the emotions in the city swirled around him.

Such intensity...this is not unbearable to an experienced Newtype, but... He cast his eyes towards the source of Emily's flickering presence, and cracked a smile. The stage is set for you, my lovely little doll. Now sing for us a beautiful song.

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"All of this hatred! All of this fighting!" Emily screamed, as she brought her saber down hard on the Slaughter Windam's shield. "Why do you have to fight us here and kill so many people!?" The Twilight Gundam surged forward, throwing the Windam back, and Emily lined up for a killing stab. "They have nothing to do with this!"

The Twilight's alarms wailed, and Emily slammed on the brakes to avoid a furious sword swipe from the IWSP Windam. It whirled around to hurl its beam boomerang down at the black Gundam— Emily batted it aside with her beam shield and charged, saber raised.

With a scream from its pilot, the Slaughter Windam rammed into the Twilight with its shield, throwing the Gundam aside. Emily turned her shaking eyes towards the new foe as it raised its own saber, and blocked its blow with a crash.

Inside the Slaughter Windam, Grey ground his teeth in fury. "That's right, you're my enemy!" he snarled. "You're the one I have to fight to end this!"

"Keep her distracted!" Merau cried, as the IWSP Windam swung in behind the staggering Twilight. "Today we'll take her down!"

Emily snapped her attention behind her, watching the second Windam come in for a killing slash— immediately, she somersaulted into the air, over the Slaughter Windam's head.

"You're not getting away!" Merau cried— the IWSP Windam opened fire with its cannons, slamming the Twilight in the back and knocking it through a building, to the ground.

In the Twilight, Emily groaned and squinted through the dust as the brought the Twilight up—

All was silent as she looked up, and found herself staring into a crater, filled with corpses.

Behind the fallen Twilight, Grey and Merau stopped as well, staring in shock at the pile of bodies. Up ahead were the outskirts of the prison camp...and so...

"Are those...are those the prisoners...?" Grey asked in disbelief.

Merau clenched her teeth, fighting a wave of nausea. "Those bodies are decomposing," she groaned. "They've been there a long time...they can't be from the massacre today." She turned her eyes towards the camp. "Yeager has been...killing them..."

Inside the Twilight, Emily clutched her shoulders and shook as the world spun, thousands of voices and feelings and the crushing cloud of death coming down upon her shoulders.

Stop it! We didn't do anything! cried a woman's voice.

Shut up! You're just Resistance scum, out to destroy the world we've all worked so hard to create! And the only thing for traitors is death!

But beyond the memories that clung to the bodies and hung over the crater like a cloud, she could feel the piercing, burning hatred of the Resistance soldiers. Flashes of light caught the edge of her field of vision— she turned her quaking eyes towards the source, and her blood ran cold as she saw a group of figures, huddled before a man with a machinegun in hand. Someone spoke— the man opened fire—

"No..." Emily started.

Down below, the man turned his gun on the wounded.

"Stop..."

An ice-cold flash of memory went shooting up her spine, and she squeezed her eyes shut as she saw herself lying on a metal bed in a cold, steel-walled room filled with complicated equipment and the stony faces of men in white lab coats and military uniforms. And there were two men standing over her, one in a lab coat and the other in a crisp business suit—

We are investing a great deal of power in this child, Director, the man in the lab coat said. Concentrating such power into one place is dangerous.

Then it is your job to ensure that she cannot be turned against us, the man in the suit shot back.

That is not my point, Director, the man in the lab coat answered. No matter who uses her, the problem remains. She is extremely efficient and her cognitive rate is phenomenally high, but certain intensities make her difficult to control. If we cannot control such power, there is no telling what it will do.

The man in the suit turned towards her. Yes, he agreed, great power. He reached out, and her blood turned to ice as he touched her face. And it is indeed difficult to control, even for her.

That is why she is dangerous, the man in the lab coat said. This world is not ready to accept the power she has.

The man in the suit began to laugh. This world is indeed not ready for it. But she has the power to make it change. He leaned over her, and Emily felt her heart stop as she stared into two remorseless black eyes. She will be our angel of death.

And then the seed burst.

Targets were everywhere. Emily's eyes snapped open, dull and lightless and scanning the world for patterns and openings. The two Windams behind her tugged at her consciousness— the man below burned her heart.

The feeling of death disappeared, and all became clear.

Unit Zero-One, said the voice. The target spread is before you. Eradicate them.

Emily's eyes flashed. "Unit Zero-One, target acquired. Proceeding to engage."

The Twilight opened fire with its CIWS; the man below vanished, replaced by a field of disjointed body parts and blood. The Twilight whirled around, beam saber flashing to life, and went charging straight at the two dumbstruck Windams.

"She's coming again— !" Grey started—

Eradicate them.

"Additional targets acquired," Emily intoned. "Zero-One, engaging."

The Twilight's beam wings flashed to life, filling the sky with the terrifying wings of light. Grey raised his beam rifle— an instant later the Twilight sawed his Windam's arm off in one swipe and rammed into the IWSP Windam, tearing both of its arms off with a saber slash and a palm cannon blow and sending both Windams staggering to the ground.

More flickers of consciousness tugged at Emily's attention— familiar, allies, comrades, objectives. The Twilight lunged into the sky, turning towards the source of the feeling, finding the hulking shape of a Euclid mobile armor closing in on the Minerva, attacking the Chaos and Abyss.

The Minerva— her ship, her home, her objective. Emily's eyes flashed.

"Zero-One, proceeding to engage."

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"Another Euclid," Auel groaned. "Sting, which Attack Pattern?"

The Chaos rattled as the Euclid slammed it with a beam cannon volley. "Dammit, it's just the two of us...let's try— !"

He never finished, as instead the Euclid was slammed with a shimmering red beam blast from above. All eyes turned to the sky, as the heavens lit up with the shimmering afterimages of the Twilight Gundam.

Inside, Emily von Oldendorf narrowed her sights on the Euclid as it wheeled around to face her.

"Emily?! How'd you get here so quickly?!" Auel cried. "Hey, what are you— "

"Zero-One, destroying target."

Sting blinked in surprise. "What? Emily— "

The Twilight charged, brandishing its saber, dancing effortlessly around the Euclid's beam shots and roaring in close. The Euclid desperately skirted aside, deploying a pummeling array of missiles into the Twilight's face. Emily sent her Gundam into a nosedive and cut the missiles out of the sky with a CIWS burst, before smashing through the smoke and tearing a smoking gash in the Euclid's armor with her saber.

"Enemy has sustained damage," Emily said, turning her animal eyes on the wounded mobile armor. "Increasing plasma compression ratio to maximize penetration."

The Twilight's beam saber blade shone as Emily increased its power, and she slammed the second boomerang together with the first to create a blazing beam sword.

"What the hell is she doing?! Not even Shinn does stuff like that!" Auel shouted. "Emily!"

"Adjusting thrust outputs," came the answer from the girl who had ceased to be a human. "Proceeding to destroy."

The Euclid fired again, but the Twilight effortlessly battled the blasts aside with its shining beam sword and charged, slashing off the Euclid's right-hand cannon with a crash. The Euclid's positron reflector flickered— an instant later, the Twilight pummeled it with a blast from its long-range cannon.

"Sting, what the hell is going on?! Why is she talking like this?!" Auel yelled, looking over at the Chaos.

"She's acting like an Extended!" Sting growled. "Like...like Stella!"

The Twilight charged again, spiraling through the Euclid's desperate fire. The mobile armor started forward with a burst of exhaust— the Twilight somersaulted over the shots—

"Zero-One, proceeding to eradicate."

The Twilight landed atop the Euclid with a crash, driving its beam sword through the cockpit with a screech of twisting metal, and lunging off. The black Gundam turned to watch its foe stagger towards the ground and finally die.

Auel and Sting turned their disbelieving eyes towards the Twilight, and the pilot within.

"Zero-One, target destroyed. Proceeding to engage additional targets."

The Twilight turned and took off towards the battlefield.

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The Infinite Justice and Savior came to a stop amidst the wreckage of the warring Resistance troops— and inside the latter, the pilot sat in shock.

"Emily did what?!" Viveka cried, eye wide.

"She took out a Euclid, completely on her own!" Sting exclaimed. "She's talking in this weird clipped military jargon and she's pushing the Twilight like I've never seen before!"

"What the hell is going on?! Athrun— "

Viveka fell silent as her eyes fell on Athrun, finding him holding his head in agony. "This...this pressure..." He looked up painfully at Viveka. "It's...coming from Emily..."

Viveka turned her disbelieving eye to the sky. "It's like that time in Volgograd," she murmured. "Sting, what's she doing now?"

"She said something about 'additional targets' and took off," Sting said. "I saw her absolutely butcher a Windam squad in, like, fifteen seconds. She's unstoppable."

"Athrun, what's going on?" Viveka asked. "Why is Emily doing this?!"

Athrun squeezed his eyes shut, as the pulsating presence froze his brain. "She...she feels like...a soldier..."

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As the Gelzuge moved forward, beam rifles in hand, General Yeager leaned forward anxiously as he watched the reports coming in. The Resistance was falling back in all sectors; victory was almost his—

"General!" someone from the command cabin cried. "A Gundam is approaching our position, sir!"

"A Gundam?" Yeager repeated dubiously. "Scramble the support elements."

He sat back and watched as three squads of Jet Windams rose into the air, rifles and bazookas at the ready. Far up ahead, he could see something shimmering against the dark, gray sky— but it couldn't be—

"General, those are wings of light!" a voice cried. Yeager felt his blood run cold. "It's the Twilight!"

"That little girl?!" Yeager screamed. "All troops, engage! Recall the Euclids!"

Up above, inside the Twilight, Emily eyed her enemies carefully.

"Enemy is in triple formation, moving to intercept."

Eradicate them.

"Zero-One, destroying targets."

The Twilight surged forward, beam sword flashing to life, and swept into the ranks of the Windams with a crash to impale one of the mobile suits on its sword. The Windams broke formation, opening fire— the Twilight whirled through the sky, afterimages filling the heavens, and tore another foe from the air with a crash. The Windams moved to attack again— and again, Emily dove through their fire and swept her sword through another victim. The Windams began to pull back— Emily cut down four of them with a volley of cannon blows, and as they scattered, went charging into their flanks to tear another out of the sky with a devastating palm cannon strike. The dwindling Windams backed away, beam rifles blazing— the Twilight danced effortlessly through their blows and tore two of them in half with its beam wings.

"Enemy squadron collapsing," she said, glaring at the three remaining Windams. They backpedaled behind their rifles and shields— with a crash, the Twilight slashed one of them in two. The remaining Windams turned to retreat— Emily brought down one with another long cannon blast.

The final Windam turned around for a desperate final attack— and an instant later, the Twilight put its palm cannon through the cockpit.

"Zero-One, confirming additional targets," Emily said, eyes flicking towards the Gelzuge below.

Eradicate them.

"Proceeding to eradicate."

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In the blink of an eye, everything was collapsing.

Danilov stared in disbelief at the map, watching in horror as Yeager's counterattack fell apart almost as soon as it began. A single unit had torn a gaping hole in his lines, and now he could not pull back troops fast enough to defend himself against that single unit.

And that single unit was the Twilight Gundam.

So this is what Markav meant... he thought. This is...this is that girl's power?

"Captain," Vera said, voice quavering. "What...what should we do?"

The captain could not falter. "Yeager's attack is broken," he said, "but our objective of destroying the Resistance force here will be met anyone. Order our pilots to pull out. We will retreat."

He narrowed his eyes at the screen as Vera sent out the order.

Project Evolution...

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"Is that...is that Emily?!" Roxy cried, staring at the auxiliary screen as the Twilight savaged another squad of Windams with a massive shining beam sword.

"The enemy Siegfried is pulling away," Burt reported. "It appears to be headed for the enemy's staging ground."

"It must be going back to fight Emily," Abbey said. "Captain— "

Meyrin shook her head— if Emily was going to fight like Ares today, then her job as the captain was to take advantage of it. "Tristans, Isolde, target the enemy plane and open fire!"

The Minerva's guns boomed, and with a crash, the Vienna broke in two and staggered out of the sky, exploding before it could reach the ground.

"Continue forward to the enemy's staging ground! Roxy, send out the order to our pilots to return to the ship!" Meyrin ground her teeth as she watched the Twilight plunge into battle. Emily, what are you doing...?

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"Enemy mobile suit squadrons destroyed or disabled," Emily intoned, coldly surveying the destruction as the last of Yeager's rearguard went down in flames. "Determining enemy mobile armor to be center of command and control."

Eradicate them.

"Proceeding to eradicate."

The Gelzuge rose into the sky, igniting beam blades on its two front legs and charging with a volley of beam blasts. Inside, Yeager snarled at the Gundam with the wings of light.

"I have held this city against the hordes of the Resistance!" he cried. "I will not be denied my victory because of you! SHOOT HER DOWN!"

The Twilight effortlessly dodged the Gelzuge's shots and charged, but its beam sword came crashing down against one of the Gelzuge's own beam blades, and the mobile armor surged forward to push the black Gundam away.

"The positron reflector's frequency is different..." Emily started— the iron face returned an instant later. "Adjusting compression ratio."

The Twilight danced again around the Gelzuge's beam shots, charging in close and stabbing forward with its sword— only to see the reflector appear again to block her blow.

Inside the Gelzuge, Yeager laughed hysterically. "That's right, you can't get through the amplified reflector on this Gelzuge model!" he shrieked. "Now tear her apart!"

The Gelzuge stabbed forward with its claws— Emily scowled as she jetted backwards, slapping both aside with her sword and beam shield, and taking off as the Gelzuge fired again. "No solid-shot weapons mounted," she murmured, "and probability of reflector output falling is nil..." The Twilight took cover behind its beam shield as the Gelzuge battered it with more beam blasts. "Deploying anti-ship sword."

The Twilight whirled around, exchanging its beam sword for its towering anti-ship sword and drawing the blade with a flash. It plowed through the Gelzuge's attacks with its beam shield, bringing the sword down with a crash onto the mobile armor's beam blades— and with a shriek of torn metal, the sword slashed through the reflector and ripped off both of the Gelzuge's blades.

"What?!" Yeager screamed. "SHOOT HER— !"

The Gelzuge rocked as the Twilight smashed its sword through the staggering mobile armor's surface, ripping apart its left-hand wing and disabling the reflector.

"THE MISSILES! FIRE ALL MISSILES!" Yeager shrieked.

The Gelzuge backed away, opening fire with its beam cannons as a swarm of missiles lifted off from the back of the mobile armor's hull.

Inside the Twilight, Emily let out an even breath. "Target has sustained damage."

The missiles came shrieking in. Emily narrowed her eyes.

"Zero-One, destroying target."

With a blinding flash from the Gundam's eyes, the Twilight Gundam pointed dramatically at the Gelzuge— and the missiles veered away from the black mobile suit, swinging back into the Gelzuge. Yeager screamed in terror as the mobile armor sparked and smoked around him, and shrieked as one of the missiles found the cockpit. The stricken machine staggered back under the force of its own missiles blew it apart, and the ruined machine sank towards the water, until it finally exploded.

Hovering above it all, sword in hand, with shimmering wings of light, Emily watched through the eyes of the Twilight Gundam.

"Zero-One, target destroyed."

A man's laughter went piercing through her mind— a voice was there, and her eyes went wide in shock.

She will become our angel of death.

All went dark.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

To be continued...