Mobile Suit Gundam SEED ETERNITY

Phase 31 - A Mother's Love

The Minerva's doctor was not the sort of man to lie, but Meyrin Hawke could still scarcely believe the words on the screen. She looked up over Talia's desk and stared incredulously at the middle-aged man— who offered only a shrug.

"The blood work was conclusive," he said. "99.6 percent certainty."

Meyrin stared back at the screen. "Explain this to me again," she said. "I don't understand."

"The short version," the doctor answered, "is that telomeres are essentially buffer zones for chromosomes being replicated. They get steadily lost as chromosomes are replicated, and the length of an organism's telomeres is a very rough way of calculating its age. But clones," he tapped a key on Meyrin's computer and called up a different image, this one a comparison between two chromosomes, "don't necessarily have that luxury. A clone will often have the same telomere length as whatever the original's chromosomes had. That means as the clone's chromosomes replicate, they run out of telomeres faster and the replication process starts damaging the DNA. A clone with shortened telomeres would start to experience bodily deterioration at a much younger age than normal." He looked back towards Meyrin. "And that's exactly what's happening to Commander Le Creuset. I noticed high amounts of anti-degenerative medication in his routine blood work and took a sample, and, well, here we are."

"So Rau is a clone? A defective clone, with short telomeres?"

"It looks that way."

Meyrin sat back and immediately her mind took her back to Shinn's words, from entirely far too long ago. Being a defective clone, cursed with a failing body after so little time in life; the anger he must have felt...

But that went places she simply could not believe.

With a wistful sigh, Viveka leaned against the railing of the Minerva's internal observation deck and glanced over at Emily. At least she was out of their bunk now, but brooding in a different place wasn't much of an improvement.

Then again, she had every right to be brooding. Especially if what Athrun and Shinn had told her about that gray mobile suit she had fought in Banadiya was true. Emily had always been closest to their mother, a consequence of her being the usual subject of her father's less than merciful attention. Gerhardt would do something to hurt her, and she would race to her mother's arms for comfort and rejuvenation. And to have that little system thrown in her face in the middle of a battle, at the cost of someone's life...

Viveka thought back to their mother, and decided that she had never really known either of her parents. Her father had essentially ignored her, for reasons she understood all too well now. Her mother had tried to show her the attention she deserved, but Viveka von Oldendorf had not been the kind of child to content herself with sitting by a sickly parent's bedside. Not when there was trouble to get into and adventures to have.

That made her feel ashamed— because she felt now, watching Emily wallow in misery at the sight of this foe with their mother's face, that she should have been just as broken up about this as her sister, and she was not.

"So," Viveka started awkwardly, "what are you going to do if you have to fight her again?"

Emily sniffled back some tears. "I don't know."

"Well, you'll have to do something."

Emily bowed her head. "I-I know."

Viveka was silent for a moment. "Em, you know that thing's not really mom, right?" she asked. Emily blinked, and Viveka put her hands on her sister's shoulders and commanded her attention. "It's a clone. It's not mom. Mom is gone. And even if she wasn't, she would never be sitting in a mobile suit fighting against you. You know that, right?"

"Y-Yeah."

"I just want to make sure. Athrun had to deal with a situation like this; maybe you should talk to him about it."

Emily stared away towards the desert below. "He already hated the person he felt like he was fighting."

"So," Auel Neider said with a melodramatic flourish, "what have we learned today, children?"

He put his hands behind his back and stood professorially over Stella's bed, with the grumpy blonde Extended slumped in it and not looking amused. Sting crossed his arms.

"Before you do too much gloating, remember that you did this too," he pointed out. Auel shushed him with a glare.

"The lesson, dear Stella," he said as pompously as he could, "is that when the doctor says you're not fit to be up running around again, he means it."

Stella crossed her arms petulantly. "Stella's bored."

"So are we," Sting said, "but if you push yourself too hard, you'll just hurt yourself and you'll be stuck here even longer."

"Besides," Auel said, giving up the professor cause as a lost one, "it's not like there's anything to do out there anyway." He shrugged. "Unless you wanna watch Yolant dismantle the Gaia."

Stella thought about that for a moment and decided that no, no she did not.

Trojan Noiret winced at the sound of an empty ammo bin crashing to the hangar floor— and the angry cursing from the mechanic below, a couple meters from whom it had landed. At the crane controls, Lily Thevalley suddenly tried to appear very small, unnoticeable even.

"And that's why you don't shut off the magnet until the crate is on the ground," he said, and shuffled her to the side to take over the crane himself. Lily crossed her arms and put on a truly formidable pout.

"It didn't actually hit anybody."

"But it almost did."

"Almost doesn't count!"

Trojan rolled his eyes. "Just go bug Emily or something."

Lily's pout faded away. "Emily won't talk to me anymore."

"Wha— you too, huh?" They both thought back to that miserable battle outside Banadiya, where they both had been too occupied by the attacking ZAFT forces to notice Emily's vicious battle with a gray ZAKU with the Legend Gundam's backpack. And ever since then, Emily had been about what Roxy called "insufferably emo."

And Trojan had an idea why. Whoever was piloting that ZAKU had gotten under her skin. But he hadn't been able to wheedle anything more out of anybody about it, and that was even more troubling.

"I hope she's okay," Lily mumbled.

"She will be," Trojan said, and cringed at his own lie.

"You know, I'm tempted to say he's going crazy," said Shams Coza with a disapproving sigh, "but I'm not sure how we'd be able to tell."

He and Mudie stood in the Charlemagne's crew lounge, watching Sven Cal Bayan extract a drink from a vending machine. What was ordinarily too mundane a task to even notice had turned into an opportunity for Shams to sordidly study his commanding officer.

Everything they needed to know was held in that haunted look in the man's eyes. It was as though something was eating him from the inside. Of course he would never say anything about it; he would never even let on about it if he'd had a choice. But Shams Coza considered it of great importance to know whether or not his squad commander was insane, and right now, Sven Cal Bayan looked like he was getting rather insane.

The silver-haired pilot shuffled out of the crew lounge, and Shams looked over skeptically at Mudie. "So? Think he's lost it?"

"He never had it to begin with."

"Well, okay, gone even farther off the deep end than usual."

Mudie crossed her arms imperiously. "I don't care. As long as he doesn't get me killed."

"But that's the thing," Shams protested, "if he's starting to lose his marbles, he just might get us killed." He shook his head. "It's happened before. Some sergeant down in Ramallah thought he was the messiah or something and led his squad into an ambush, and they didn't realize until it was too late that he was nuts. Got 'em all killed." He pointed angrily at the door through which Sven had disappeared. "If that guy's going crazy on us, I don't want to be around for it, and I definitely don't want to be taking his orders."

Mudie arched a skeptical eyebrow. "Then what are you going to do about it?"

"I..." Shams fell silent as his plan crashed into the jagged shoals of reality. "Well, look, you're with me on this, right? We have to do something about him. Report him to the ship's doctor or something."

"You have fun with that, then," Mudie snapped, and turned to leave.

"You know," Shams spoke up, "I'm sticking my neck out for you here too."

Something in Mudie's eyes seemed to snap— but she turned away again and stormed out of the lounge, leaving Shams behind to merely sigh and try not to bang his head against the wall.

ZAFT had left its mark on Banadiya many times over. The city had almost a dozen deep, smoking gashes ripped across its landscape, courtesy of that gigantic hovering thing with a ZAKU torso and an immense rail cannon. The crew lounge had intelligence footage from the battle and whatever that giant ZAKU thing was, it was powerful— and, if that beam shield was any indication, difficult to kill.

Grey Saiba had a sinking feeling that he would have to fight it at some point.

He and Merau watched skeptically as the footage looped and showed the Minerva's green DOM Trooper putting up a valiant but futile fight against the incredible power of ZAFT's latest toy. In a way it was heartening to see that the enemy was at least as bad as his own allies. The giant ZAKU thing wasn't trying to use that rail cannon against the DOM; it was intentionally blowing away the city. He had been there. That was no collateral damage.

Watching ZAFT demolish a city just made him think about the time he had taken part in the demolishing of a city, and that made him feel even worse. But there was something else to this little battle too; that ZAFT submarine had deployed forces against its own allies.

In a way, that was heartening too— to see that not everyone succumbed to evil.

But defection? He could never get away with that. He would be leaving people behind— people like Merau. He couldn't go without her, and when he thought of persuading her differently, her mantra popped back into his mind— that he should just forget, that it was only going to get him killed, that he would regret it for the rest of his life if he dwelled on it.

And she was probably right...but that didn't change a thing. And so he looked back at the screen where someone in ZAFT had decided to stand up to their comrades' evil, and wondered if he could do the same.

Travis Alterman took another slow drag from his cigarette, stared contemptuously at the smoldering butt, and tossed it to the ground as he let out his breath. Damn thing wasn't even worth putting out.

He looked back out over the grim tableau of Athens Naval Installation and the Charlemagne in its massive dock. Damage was light so the ship would be setting out again soon, and that managed to completely annoy him. They would probably take some stupid detour somewhere, put together some cautious plan to corner the Minerva, let all the action pass them by...Captain Danilov was apparently one of those soldiers who took a great deal of pride in everything a soldier did except fight.

At his side, Kelly looked disapprovingly at him— but knew better than to say anything and simply stamped out the glowing cigarette butt herself.

"You know," she said, "you never told me why you accepted the assignment here in the first place."

Travis snorted. "Not like I had a choice."

"You could have requested reassignment." She shot him a sidelong glance. "There were plenty of openings in places with more...activity than here."

He waved down towards the ship. "It was a condition of getting the Nebula Blitz. Had to use it here." Besides, he added mentally, I do have a job to do here.

At that thought, he turned his mind towards Captain Danilov. The good captain had met with Admiral MacIntyre not long ago, but a lowly ensign was far too low on the totem pole to know what those two had discussed. No matter; his superiors would tell him if he needed to know— and if he didn't, then what did he care?

Why didn't he understand?

Erin Gedelberg truly hated to brood in her bunk like a spurned little schoolgirl, but it was either this or doing something stupid and self-destructive, like trying to make him understand. This, she idly reflected, was probably why the instructors at Volkov had warned the cadets against forming relationships anymore intimate than the strictly professional during their tours of duty.

But she had the benefit of years of training even before ever setting foot on Volkov Crater. The powerful Gedelberg family expected all of its offspring to be more or less capable of taking over the family's businesses and investments; Erin's spell in the Phantom Pain was really only meant, as her father had said, to "stiffen her spine" and "give her discipline." The drill instructors had seen to the latter— "eating danger and crapping victory," they'd called it— but she was not so sure about the former. If they had succeeded, after all, none of this would be a problem.

He had said the Alliance had done evil things, which he knew, because he had taken part in them. He said he had done evil things. But how could her side of the war do wrong against enemies so heinous? Wasn't this the same Resistance that routinely slaughtered innocents in their endless guerrilla war? Weren't these the same Coordinators who had dedicated themselves to the destruction of their genetic inferiors? Wasn't this the same ZAFT that had invaded them in the Valentine War, thrown Junius 7 at them and tried to destroy them with some superweapon in the Junius War, and now ran around the Earth Sphere slaughtering at will?

If the Alliance was also evil, then did that make her evil too?

A Gedelberg was not evil. If that were so, then her father would have failed to raise a proper inheritor of his wealth and power. And the disappointed eyes bored into her soul and the tears threatened to flow.

She thought back to Grey, and that stupid flutter of her heart whenever she did flared up again, but she knew he would have to understand. Surely he would.

The Gundam Eclipse settled into the air with a hum from its engines, and in the cockpit, Emily steeled herself for battle again. It had only been that Eternal-class, with those two loudmouthed ZAFT pilots she always seemed to run into; nobody had said anything about that gray ZAKU. Maybe she wouldn't have to...

Down below, the blue-gray CaVAL darted out from behind a sand dune and fired off a round of artillery shells that slammed into the Eclipse's beam shield. Emily flung the Gundam towards the ground, pulled back up, and charged forward with the left-hand palm cannon ready for a strike. The CaVAL darted aside and fired back with the beam cannons on its left arm; the Eclipse ducked aside, letting the blasts sear by, and then charged forward with its beam sword held high for a killing blow—

...and instead, the CaVAL darted to its right, the sand burst upward, and the CaZEL brought both its swords down to deflect the Eclipse's blow.

"You rats on the Minerva have a gift for longevity!" cackled Varder Ehrmacht. "I must admit, I'm impressed!"

The Eclipse flung the CaZEL away and backed up, brandishing its sword, as the CaZEL and CaVAL came back together. "That's right," Lilith agreed with a smirk, "you're not following the script here. You were supposed to die back there in Banadiya."

Emily scowled back. "I don't play by your rules."

"Oh, you will," Varder chuckled, "whether you want to or not. So tell me!" The CaZEL charged forward, ducked under the Eclipse's horizontal slash, then rammed its shoulder into the black Gundam. Emily staggered back and brought down her sword, just in time to deflect the CaZEL's blow. She flung it back again— only to be bombarded by shells and beam fire from the CaVAL down below, and the CaZEL seized its chance to drop in and drive the Eclipse back with a furious barrage of sword blows. "Tell me, angel girl, how you liked meeting Zero-Two!"

Emily blinked. "Zero-Two...?"

"Oh, did you two not introduce yourselves?" Lilith laughed, and the CaVAL slammed a volley of shells into the Eclipse's face. The CaZEL hacked its way through the smoke and charged; Emily ducked beneath its attack and rocketed skyward, only to be followed by more beam fire from the CaVAL. "That's what we call the little angel-killer you tangoed with in Banadiya!"

Emily ground her teeth and flung her sword up to deflect the CaZEL's swings. "Zero-Two, huh...?"

"Not that you should worry about her too much!" Varder added, and with a crash the CaZEL showered her Gundam with relentless beam fire from its shoulders. "'cuz you won't be leaving here alive!"

A pulsing red beam blast tore up the ground in front of the charging DOM Trooper and Vent Savior, forcing them both apart. Up above, eight red ZAKUs descended from the sky on Guul units, and one of the two Gunner ZAKU Warriors amid their ranks leveled off its cannon for another shot.

"You're not pulling that stunt again!" Lily screamed, and with a flash the Vent Savior charged skyward and snapped their formation apart with a volley of plasma cannon fire. The ZAKUs darted aside as the silver Gundam roared past— but then they turned again and dodged the fire from the DOM down below. Four of the ZAKUs split off, only for the Vent Savior to roar by in their path, abruptly transform, and shower them with beam fire.

"Lily, box them in!" shouted Trojan; the DOM Trooper backed away from a barrage of beam bolts and fired back with the beam rifle and Gigalauncher's beam cannon, and the blasts drove the squadron of red mobile suits back further. Out of nowhere, a pair of red beams ripped through two of the mobile suits— and the six survivors backed away from the charging Vent Savior, only for one to be picked off from behind by the DOM below. And as they turned around again, the Vent Savior rushed in and speared one of the ZAKUs through the cockpit with a beam rifle blast.

The silver Gundam backed away as the ZAKUs tightened their dwindled formation.

"That was easy," Lily remarked.

"Well, now we've pissed them off," Trojan added. "And here they come!"

That bolt of recognition shot up her spine and Emily turned in fear at that same feeling from Banadiya. So she was back. The air lit up with a flurry of beam shots, and with a crash the Providence ZAKU and Unit Zero-Two came crashing down into the battle.

"And so begins round two!" laughed Varder as the CaZEL wheeled around for another attack. The Eclipse ducked away from its double sword blows, then dodged a beam cannon volley from the CaVAL down below— but the black Gundam rattled as a wave of beam fire from the ZAKU slammed into its beam shield.

Emily blinked up through the gathering tears and tried to shake off the feelings of her mother. Viveka was right; that thing wasn't her mother; it was a clone, it was probably like Rau and doomed to die early, she couldn't save it, it had killed Coniel, she had to destroy it—

Lorelei's pale, sad face flashed up before her eyes. She punched the Eclipse's beam sword forward and spoiled the ZAKU's saber blow; the CaZEL dropped down from behind, but she whipped around to smack its blades aside and send it reeling with a hard kick to the chest. The CaVAL fired again; the Eclipse darted back and returned its attention to the waiting Providence ZAKU.

"I can fight you," she murmured, even as the Providence ZAKU closed in with another beam barrage. "I don't have to be afraid of you!"

The Eclipse shook as the ZAKU brought its saber down, the auxiliary screen flickered to life, and—

"Yes, you do."

Emily felt her courage vanish again as the face of a young Lorelei von Oldendorf stared back, the smile gone, the light dulled, but the orange hair and the green eyes and her voice were all there, and that feeling again that she was back in the safety of her mother's arms, where she knew her mistakes wouldn't cost her parents' love, where she knew her father would not reach her—

The ZAKU flung her back with a swing from its beam saber and showered the Eclipse with beam blasts. Emily instinctively ducked away; the CaZEL roared up from behind and forced her back into a bone-jarring swordfight, and the ZAKU took its opportunity to dart around and swing at the Eclipse's exposed back. Emily hurled the Eclipse towards the ground and let the ZAKU's saber catch nothing but air; the CaVAL's furious fire from below forced her back skyward, where the ZAKU and CaZEL were waiting, blades blazing in the sun.

"They told me I'm supposed to be a clone of you or something," Zero-Two added. "Strange. I would have thought you'd be more impressive, if I was a clone of you."

"N-No," Emily whispered, "not me..."

The CaZEL charged forward, swords held high. "Too much talking!" sneered Varder; Emily jetted to the left to let the CaZEL shoot by, then slammed it in the back with a hard kick to send it sailing towards the desert below. She whipped around and instinctively threw up the beam sword to deflect the charging ZAKU's downward saber strike.

"'Not me,' huh?" Zero-Two asked. "Then who?"

Emily swallowed hard. "Y-You're a clone of...my mother."

"Your mother?" Zero-Two glanced down at her hands, then looked back up at her trembling enemy. "Are you insulting me?"

"No! My mother had Newtype powers, and...I was born for them, and you..."

Zero-Two's eyes lit up in understanding. "Then I have everything I need," she said. The ZAKU threw the Eclipse back. "As for you...they did warn me that you were the failed version."

Emily winced; her mother, telling her she was a failure...? She shook her head and tried to remember Viveka's words.

"W-Who are you?"

The ZAKU's monoeye flashed and Zero-Two glared down at her foe.

"I am Unit Zero-Two, and I have been sent here to destroy you, Angel of Death."

The words went through Emily's heart like a knife— and a moment later, the ZAKU charged.

"I see they brought friends!" Trojan cried, as he wheeled the DOM Trooper around towards eight oncoming shapes— one of them absolutely enormous. He swallowed anxiously as he watched the approach of the massive ZAKU Ranger and its four Guul-mounted ZAKU escorts— plus a trio of BABIs and a pair of BuCUEs, along with the red ZAKUs.

"Tell you what," Lily offered, "I'll deal with the normal ones and you can go get rid of the Incredible Hulk over there."

Trojan ground his teeth, a plan coming together in the back of his mind. "You have yourself a deal," he said, and rocketed forward.

Overhead, the BABIs banked off towards the Vent Savior and joined the four red ZAKUs in spewing fire after her. It rapidly transformed and pounded two of the ZAKUs with return fire, but the second two rocketed over their allies' heads and rained missiles and beam bolts from a Blaze and a Slash Wizard down on her. The Vent Savior spiraled back towards the ground, the BABIs in hot pursuit; Lily pulled up and launched herself skyward, but the BABIs broke formation around her and the ZAKUs took their opportunity to open fire and force her off course.

"There's only seven of you!" Lily shouted. "And I'm the one with the Gundam!" The BABIs came around for another pass, beam rifles blazing. "That means I win!"

With a shout, Lily threw the Vent Savior forward, a beam saber blazing to life in its hand— and with an ear-splitting screech, she ripped one of the BABIs in half as it passed, and smiled with satisfaction as it exploded behind her.

"See?"

The remaining mobile suits intensified their fire, but Lily only grinned back as she dodged it and waited for her next opportunity.

The pain went rippling over Shinn Asuka's consciousness as he sat at the back of the bridge, nervously watching the battle on the main screen— and even more nervously following the battle between those two enormously powerful Newtypes outside. The fear emanating from Emily was so much like her first sorties in the Twilight Gundam, seemingly so long ago. But that had been fear of combat and fear of death; this, this fear of a particular enemy, and fear laced with heartbreak and regret...

He closed his eyes and tried to will encouragement to her, but in her distracted state, there was no way she would be receptive.

And then there was Rau, making no effort to hide his delight down in the observation deck. Of course he would enjoy this; he seemed to revel in the suffering of others. Misery truly did love company, evidently.

Shinn turned his eyes back to the battle and focused on Emily's presence. That other pilot felt like cold steel, polished and ready for its purpose, but remembered that to Emily it was so much more. And she barely fought it off, while at the same time swatting the other mobile suit away.

Someone in ZAFT knew her history, and knew exactly who would throw her off balance the most. Someone knew she would be stopped by the psychic image of her kindly mother in the heat of battle.

Shinn glanced up towards the sky and struggled to control his anger. Someone in ZAFT was going to pay.

"Okay," Trojan said, "if this is going to work the positioning has to be just right!"

The DOM Trooper rattled as a wave of beam fire kicked up the sand around it. The Gunner ZAKU Warrior drove him back with a pulsating blast from its cannon; the Blaze ZAKU Phantom up ahead dropped in from behind, beam rifle extended—

"I don't think so!" Trojan snapped; the DOM whipped around and deflected the blast with his right-hand beam shield, then darted aside the Gunner ZAKU leveled off its cannon to fire again. The other two ZAKUs and the Ranger followed him with a volley of beam shots, and Trojan risked a glance at the Ranger's cannon. At Banadiya, the two huge cooling systems on its right side had blown out a puff of steam three seconds before it fired. And apparently it had a charging period—

He threw the DOM aside and a flurry of smaller railgun shells tore past. Up ahead, two BuCUEs came galloping out of the cover afforded by the Ranger's massive body, beam sabers alight. The DOM wove its way around the ZAKUs firepower, then pulled back as the BuCUEs came charging in. Trojan clenched his fists as the BuCUEs lunged— Master Ho had taught him this—

Abruptly, he jammed back the DOM's controls and kicked upward with one of its wide feet, catching the first BuCUE's chin and throwing the entire mobile suit upwards on its hind legs. With another tooth-jarring kick to the BuCUE's exposed stomach, he smashed the first mobile suit back into its comrade— and with two beam shots, he speared them both through the torso and blew them apart.

The DOM ducked around from more beam blasts from the ZAKUs as Trojan glanced back up at his remaining foes. Up above, the Slash ZAKU Warrior came roaring down, twirling a beam axe over its head. Trojan dove under its horizontal slash and whipped around to blast it in the back, and then turned again, taking a moment to look over the battlefield. The Lesseps was moving in from behind the Minerva as the smoking, winged warship dodged blasts from the black Eternal. And the ZAKU Ranger had dug in, its cannon pointed straight at the Minerva—

The three remaining ZAKUs charged; the Blaze ZAKU Warrior lunged off its Guul and speared it on a beam shot, and with a thundering blast it exploded against the DOM Trooper's beam shield and threw the mobile suit back. The Gunner ZAKU Warrior and ZAKU Phantom dropped down between the DOM and the Ranger.

Then the steam burst out of the Ranger's vents; Trojan's chest tightened as he looked between the two ZAKUs between him and his foe, and the third one storming towards him. The Ranger was there, cannon pointed at the Minerva; the Lesseps was just below, just a tiny adjustment to the right. If he didn't do something...

Instinct took over. He flung the DOM's Gigalauncher at a spot above the end of the Ranger's rail cannon barrel and prayed this would work. He snapped his beam rifle up and fired, piercing the bazooka magazine. The Gigalauncher exploded; the ZAKU Ranger lurched; the rail cannon fired—

The battlefield shuddered as the ZAKU Ranger's rail cannon slammed a shell directly through the Arrhenius, and the ship vanished in a plume of fire.

Trojan roared forward as he saw his chance, smoke washing over the battlefield, and slashed the oncoming ZAKU in half along the way. The ZAKU Ranger stared in apparent disbelief at the Arrhenius' smoking ruins; Trojan flung himself forward with a scream and activated the beam shield, plowing through the Ranger's translucent barrier. He landed with a crash on the Ranger's hull, just in front of the ZAKU torso. It looked up at him, as though shocked— and Trojan snapped up the beam rifle and pumped blasts into the ZAKU Ranger's center.

Throwing sparks, the giant mobile suit's monoeyes went dark. The DOM vaulted off the Ranger's body, the two smaller ZAKUs turning towards him in surprise— and then they disappeared as a thundering explosion claimed the ZAKU Ranger.

Trojan landed with a crash and a smirk at his handiwork. Master Ho would be proud.

The BABIs banked apart, along with the red ZAKUs, as the ZAKU Ranger down below burst apart. Lily grinned and seized her chance, whipping around and gunning down one of the BABIs with a plasma cannon burst. The ZAKUs intensified their fire; the Vent Savior rocketed over it, then swept back down towards the last BABI. It transformed to its mobile suit mode and brought around its chest-mounted Ardor cannon—

Lily ducked beneath the blast, then jerked back to kick the BABI upward— just as the ZAKUs above opened fire again and tore it apart in the crossfire.

"I love it when you guys do my work for me!" she laughed, and fired back with the plasma cannons to break their ranks apart again— and then the Slash ZAKU Warrior erupted into an explosion, pierced by a beam blast from below. Lily turned her eyes downward and found the DOM Trooper blasting away skyward with its beam rifle, forcing the three surviving ZAKUs on the defensive. "Hey, I thought we had a deal!"

"Deal's over!" Trojan shot back, and the beam fire drove the three ZAKUs apart. Lily charged forward, beam saber in hand, and before the Gunner ZAKU could react it was already cut in half. The two survivors backed away behind a screen of fire, one aiming for the Vent Savior and the other for the DOM Trooper.

And then, they abruptly dumped a load of combat flares into the air and rocketed into the distance.

Lily squinted under the harsh glare and glanced down towards the DOM Trooper. "The hell was all that about?"

Down below, Trojan merely grinned back up at the Vent Savior. "I kicked their asses, is what that was about."

"I was expecting a harder fight out of you," Zero-Two growled as the sabers clashed and sparks rained down on both mobile suits. Emily struggled to calm her trembling hands. "They told me you were an ace pilot."

Emily flung the Eclipse back to avoid the Providence ZAKU's saber blow— and instead the CaZEL fell upon her with its swords upturned. Emily growled in frustration and darted aside, and with a quick kick to the side of the head, sent the green mobile suit spiraling away. "I don't have time for you!"

The ZAKU slammed its spiked shoulder shield into the Eclipse and the black Gundam went reeling. Emily threw up the beam sword to deflect the ZAKU's saber. "Either way, let's get this over with!" Zero-Two shouted, and the ZAKU surged forward.

Emily clenched her teeth and slapped the attack aside, then rammed the Eclipse's shoulder into the ZAKU's chest. It staggered back and swung up its saber to deflect a blow from the Eclipse's beam sword; the black Gundam stormed forward anyway and pushed the ZAKU back.

"You're not her," Emily growled, her words sounding hollow in her ears, "you're not— "

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, little girl!" Varder screamed, and the CaZEL plunged out of the sky from above. Emily whipped around and threw her saber up to defend, but the blow sent her reeling anyway. "Not doing so hot there, angel girl! What's the matter? Don't wanna hurt mommy?"

"Shut up!" Emily snapped back. The CaZEL went back after her and slammed her sword with a long chain of relentless blows.

"Just as we expected, you couldn't handle it!" Varder roared. "You can kill us and humiliate us without a problem, but not when it's someone you care about!"

Emily's eyes went wide. "You— ?"

"Now!" The CaZEL brandished its swords and readied itself for the kill. "See you in hell!"

The seed burst— and an instant later, the CaZEL went flailing back as the Eclipse rocketed forward, smacked its swords aside, and pounded the green mobile suit back down towards the ground with a hard kick. The black Gundam charged forward, Voiture Lumiere system flashing to life; the Providence ZAKU backed away, filling the sky with beam blasts—

Zero-Two stared in disbelief as the Eclipse expertly wove its way through them all, and with a crash, it slammed its sword down onto the ZAKU's beam sword and drove it back. Zero-Two backed away and desperately flung her saber up to defend against the Eclipse's sword strikes.

"You're somewhere in there!" Emily shouted, "and I'll drag you out!"

Anger and despair crashed like waves against Zero-Two's mind. She flicked her eyes down towards the CaZEL, still reeling down below in the sand as the CaVAL helped it up— and then darted back and fired a combat flare into the charging Eclipse's face.

The Providence ZAKU ducked down below the Eclipse and swept down towards the two mobile suits below. Zero-Two glanced around the battlefield and scowled at the bitter taste of failure— but with her allies' forces so reduced, continuing the fight was hopeless...

"There you two are," Lilith Ramsi put in with a sigh. "The Seraphim's ordering a retreat."

"No," Varder snarled, "not again, we had her, Lilith! We— "

His line cut out as the CaVAL hoisted up the CaZEL and rocketed away towards the Seraphim. Zero-Two glanced up at her still-burning flare and the Eclipse, backing away from its blinding red light.

So I'm your "mother," huh?

The thrusters roared as the Providence ZAKU made good its escape.

Emily cracked her eyes open as the flare burned itself out and looked frantically around the battlefield— but the Providence ZAKU and its allies were already fading into the distance across the shimmering sands.

She watched it go desolately. Her enemies knew that Zero-Two was a clone of her mother, had chosen her specifically for that effect. They knew— and they knew that the image of her mother would slow her down in battle. How could they have known? And they had sent her—

A jolt of recognition shot up her spine.

So you think I'm your mother, Zero-Two's voice echoed in her head. Just because I'm a clone? Just because I make you feel the same way?

No! Emily shot back. You are like her! If you weren't, you wouldn't feel the same! And...

And what? You think you can save me?

Emily's blood went cold. How— ?

I know what I am, Angel of Death, Zero-Two continued. I am you, perfected. And there's nothing you can do about it.

The Providence ZAKU disappeared over the horizon. Emily stared after it, the words from the shadow of her mother echoing through her mind— but another voice sliced through the fog and sent a blinding bolt of pain throughout her body.

She will be our angel of death.

Darkness descended.

To be continued...