Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY

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Phase 13 - The Extended

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Lodonia Island, from the vantage point of the Minerva’s central catapult as the ship steamed towards the island, was a desolate rock with a cluster of equally desolate buildings perched in the center. Already, far ahead in the distance, Shinn could see the enemy carrier coming around the island. Its deck was packed with mobile suits and fighters; however, it was the only ship present. The mobile suits and fighters began to take off; Shinn tightened his fists around the Core Splendor’s controls.

“The ship will engage the enemy carrier,” Talia’s voice said authoritatively through Shinn’s cockpit speakers. “Mobile suits, launch and attack the enemy forces!”

In the Core Splendor‘s cockpit, Shinn narrowed his eyes at the enemy carrier. One ship, a squadron of Jet Dagger Ls, and a wing of Spearhead fighters—this would be easier than infanticide.

“Shinn Asuka, Core Splendor, going out!”

The parts docked together to form the Force Impulse, as the Minerva’s four other mobile suits launched out of the main catapults. Shinn stared ruefully at his enemies, as the Savior took the lead of the formation.

“All mobile suits,” Shiho ordered, “engage the enemy at will, and cover the Minerva!”

Shinn clenched his teeth. He saw Stella again; he remembered his promise to see her again after the war was over.

Then I’ll end this war myself!

The Impulse took off with a roar.

The Daggers opened fire; Shinn dove beneath their blasts and shot one of them down with ease. He swung around, firing again and taking down another. A third attacked him with a bazooka, and a fourth with a missile volley; Shinn narrowed his eyes at them both, cutting the missiles down with a shower of CIWS fire. He dove through the smoke and fired his beam rifle again, shooting down the third Dagger.

The fourth was buffeted by a storm of beam bolts, and went down in flames towards the ocean. The GOUF Ignited swung down into the battle, cutting down another Dagger with its heat rod.

“This is child’s play!” Heine laughed.

Overhead, the Savior shot by in mobile armor mode, and shot down two more Daggers with its plasma cannons. Another trio of Daggers rose up after it, beam carbines blazing; the Savior transformed in midair and fired back from behind its shield, taking one of the Daggers down. Another beam blast slashed through the second Dagger; Lunamaria’s red ZAKU Warrior swept by on a Guul and showered the third Dagger with missiles, knocking it out of the sky in flames.

Shinn ducked beneath another beam shot and blasted down the attacking Dagger—this was child’s play. He glanced towards the carrier; the fighters were beginning to move in. He snorted disgustedly; they would be dispatched easily. The fighters swept in, machineguns blazing; Shinn returned fire with his CIWS, and within moments, two of the fighters went staggering out of the sky, trailing smoke.

A blaze of missiles flashed by, taking down four more fighters; Rey’s ZAKU Phantom rocketed through the air, shooting down another fighter with its beam rifle. Shinn dove beneath a missile barrage and shot down the attacking fighter; he turned and fired again, catching one of the remaining Daggers in the chest and destroying it.

Down below, the Minerva was closing in on the enemy carrier. A pair of Daggers swept in with a volley of missiles; the Savior dove into their path, shooting down their missiles with a CIWS burst and destroying both Daggers with a plasma cannon salvo. The Minerva opened fire with its Tristans; the blasts punched through the carrier’s bow.

The fighters were dropping like rocks; Shinn backed away, dodging a missile barrage and shooting down yet another fighter. The Minerva’s Isolde boomed; the shots slammed into the carrier’s deck with a crash and a pall of smoke. A pair of fighters swept in towards the Minerva; Lunamaria shot one down with her beam cannon, and the Minerva’s CIWS turrets shredded the other

The last three Daggers charged towards the Minerva; Shinn dove at them and shot one of them down with ease. The remaining two broke off and fired back; the GOUF’s heat rod dragged one down, and Heine gleefully impaled it on his beam sword. The last Dagger began to pull back; Shinn screamed and charged at it. The Dagger fired; Shinn deflected its shots with his shield and fired back, taking it down in a blaze of fire.

The Minerva launched a storm of missiles into the air; a dozen fighters went shrieking out of the sky in flames. Rey shot down another fighter of his own with his beam rifle; Heine slashed one in half with his beam sword. The remaining few fighters tried to retreat; the Savior and the Impulse tore them apart with a blaze of CIWS fire.

Down below, the Minerva fired its Tristans and Isolde simultaneously at the enemy carrier; the shots pounded into it, and a moment later, a thunderous explosion tore the ship apart.

Shinn looked past the ship’s desiccated remains, at the installation on Lodonia Island. There was a pressure coming off the island itself; something distinctly evil, penetrating him like a knife, digging into the back of his head.

He shook his head and turned the Impulse back towards the Minerva.

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The Girty Lue was abuzz with activity as the ship raced at full speed across the Mediterranean Sea, driving for Lodonia Island. On the bridge, the crew was desperately trying to keep the ship in top condition; the Minerva had been tracked heading for Lodonia, and everybody aboard the ship knew that there was an installation there that they could not let ZAFT find.

Neo sat in his usual seat; Lee sat to his left, watching Neo carefully. Somehow, Neo was smiling; Lee could not see what there was to smile at.

“Colonel,” one of the men reported, “we’ve lost contact with the James Madison. It appears they’ve been—”

“Destroyed,” Neo finished. He sat back, still smiling. “Looks like ZAFT’s going to find one of our evil secrets after all.”

“Can we push the engines any faster?” Lee asked.

“Impossible, sir,” the helmsman answered. “We would risk damaging them if we tried to squeeze anymore output out of them.”

“Don’t bother,” Neo put in. “We’ll just have to settle for destroying them before they can tell anyone about what they find.”

Lee gripped the armrests of his chair uneasily. “We’ve fought the Minerva twice before,” he said, “and neither battle has yielded us positive results.”

“Patience, Lee,” Neo said. “This time we have them cornered and on their own.”

Lee glanced distastefully at Neo. He always seemed to be smiling.

“This time,” Neo said, “our three little angels will have to perform better.”

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“What...what the hell is this place?!”

Arthur Trine’s voice echoed throughout the corridor. Arthur stood with Talia and the Minerva’s mobile suit pilots, wielding flashlights inside the darkened building. Everywhere there was death, everywhere there was destruction, everywhere there was decay.

And everywhere, there were bodies.

Shinn Asuka stared in disbelief at the corpses littering the hallway. The corridor reeked of rotting flesh, so much that he held a hand over his nose and mouth, his eyes watering. The bodies were those of children; a few adults in white coats were scattered around as well, along with a handful of men in Earth Alliance uniforms, but the overwhelming and horrifying majority of the bodies were children. Some bore festering bullet wounds, while others were in the grotesque contortions of nerve gas poisoning.

“Those monsters!” Heine shouted, pounding his fist against a wall. “How dare they do this to children! What the hell are they?!”

Talia cast her flashlight’s beam across the hallway, holding a white handkerchief to her face to block out the hideous smell. At her side, Shiho stared in horror at it all; Lunamaria covered her face, her eyes shimmering with tears. And Rey remained impassive, staring emotionlessly at the bodies.

“There must’ve been some kind of conflict,” Talia said through her handkerchief. "A rebellion…or something…" She slowly approached a heavy steel door with a switch next to it. Heine pressed the switch; the door rumbled open, and they stepped into the revealed room.

Arthur collapsed to his knees, holding his hands over his mouth, his flashlight clattering to the ground. Lunamaria shrieked in terror; Shiho, Talia, Heine, and Shinn stared in disbelief...and Rey scowled, as though he’d expected it.

The room was walled with tiny cabinets. In each cabinet was a human brain, with wires attached where the spinal cord normally would have been, floating in some kind of chemical bath. At one end of the room was a computer terminal, but all anyone could do was stare at the human brains lining the wall.

“WHAT THE HELL IS THIS PLACE?!” Arthur screamed.

Talia proceeded slowly towards the terminal; the rest continued to stare in horror at the room. Shinn wandered towards one of the corpses; he knelt down in front of it, staring at its hollow face. It was a little girl; she couldn’t have been any older than Mayu.

Shinn stood up and backed away, tears stinging his eyes. There was death and decay everywhere; it was pressing him down, like a weight on his shoulders.

At the terminal, Talia gasped in shock; the others made their way towards her.

“What is this place, Captain?” Shiho asked quietly, staring at the screen.

“’CE 64, received sixteen new specimens,‘” she read slowly, staring disbelievingly at the screen. “’CE 65, five specimens of Generation Nine deemed unsuitable for further testing and...liquidated.‘” She blinked in horror. “This is...the specimen’s—the children’s...’entry records,’ you could say.”

“Entry records?!” Heine echoed. “Those barbarians!”

“W-What are they doing to these children?” Luna asked in horror, her eyes flicking around in disbelief.

Talia continued to read. “The Earth Alliance’s ‘Extended,’” she said softly. “This is their lab...and...production facility.“ She paused as she read another line. “The Earth Alliance and Blue Cosmos, who say that manipulating genes is against the laws of nature, are using drugs and indoctrination to create soldiers that can surpass Coordinators in battle...human beings meant only for fighting.”

“Bastards!” Heine shouted, bringing his fist down onto the console.

Shinn stared in horror over Talia’s shoulder at the screen, and the entries of the children the Earth Alliance had turned into weapons. A word caught his attention; his eyes widened in horror.

“Wait!” he exclaimed, grabbing Talia’s hand before she could change the screen. She blinked in surprise as Shinn reloaded a set of records.

The words “Stella Loussier” appeared on the screen. Shinn gasped in horror; there was Stella’s face, staring blankly at him.

He backed away, coming up against the wall, staring in shock at the screen.

“Stella!” he exclaimed. “It...it can’t be! She can’t be!”

“Who...?” Talia started, looking back at the screen.

“Is this the girl you met yesterday?” Shiho asked, coming forward and touching Shinn’s arm, trying to get his attention.

“She can’t be one of these, these...” He trailed off as words failed him and horror filled him. It couldn’t be possible; not Stella. She just wanted to be protected. She just wanted to be safe. She couldn’t be one of these Earth Alliance super-soldiers. She couldn’t be an Extended. She couldn’t—

“He met someone yesterday?” Talia asked, glancing at Shiho.

“He returned to the Minerva soaking wet and with those scars on his face,” Shiho explained, “and when I asked what happened, he explained that he had saved a drowning girl.” She glanced at the screen. “I guess this was who he saved.”

Shinn was still staring at the screen.

“It can’t be Stella,” he murmured to himself. “It can’t be...it can’t be...”

“Shinn—” Luna started.

“It’s not possible!” Shinn screamed.

Rey swept in to seize Shinn by the shoulders and push him out of the room wordlessly.

Inside the room, Talia glanced at Arthur. “We’re heading back to the ship,” she said grimly. “Order the search teams to gather as much information as they can. We‘ll send for a team of experts to survey the complex themselves.”

“Y-Yes ma’am,” Arthur stammered with a quavering salute.

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Rey stood with Shinn outside the Lodonia complex; the area was already swarming with ZAFT soldiers from the Minerva, and they were already gathering information. Shinn sat on a large rock, his head in his hands, staring incredulously at the ground.

“She just wanted to be safe,” Shinn murmured. “She...she couldn’t be one of these...”

“This is why we are fighting for Gil’s new world,” Rey said, kneeling in front of Shinn and speaking to him sternly and sincerely. “This is why you must suffer now; so that you and children like Stella can have a world where none of you don’t have to.”

Shinn looked up desolately at Rey.

“She...she just wanted to be safe...” Shinn said chokingly, almost as if Rey wasn’t there. “She just...she just...”

Rey took Shinn by the shoulders, catching his attention.

“Shinn,” he said. “You are different. You have a power ordinary humans, Natural or Coordinator, could never have. You have a gift of power. You must use it.” He glanced meaningfully at the Lodonia complex. “In here, they have made children suffer in pursuit of a perfect human weapon. Out here, they make you suffer in pursuit of destruction of the PLANTs. Gil’s new world will erase this all. Gil’s new world will give you a home, where you no longer have to fight. Gil’s new world will ensure that people will never again do what was done in this lab. Gil’s new world will take away your suffering. But you have to be strong. The world has never changed without suffering; you will have to suffer now and continue fighting, but when the fighting ends, you will have a world where you no longer have to suffer.”

“R-Rey,” Shinn said chokingly.

“You are sad because someone as gentle and kind as Stella has turned out to be a tool of the Alliance,” Rey continued. “Take your sorrow and transform it into will, into power, into strength; you have to be strong, to create a world where you and Stella don’t have to suffer.”

Shinn stared disconsolately at Rey; he let go of Shinn and stood back up.

“I will remain by your side,” Rey said. “You will never have to fight alone.”

Shinn looked up at Rey; he stared back.

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The Chaos Gundam stood in the port catapult; inside, Sting Oakley was tense and nervous. He glanced at his screen; Auel looked angry, but that was most likely a front for his own feelings.

“I don’t want to be back here,” Auel said shortly. “I don’t want to come back.”

“We’re not going back inside,” Sting reminded him. “We’re just fighting to get rid of that ZAFT ship.”

“I don’t care,” Auel said. “This is the place where...” He trailed off painfully.

“Damned Neo,” Sting growled. “Dragging us back here again.” He paused and keyed up a line to the Gaia. “Stella,” he began.

Stella was staring at Lodonia.

“Lodonia...lab...” she murmured.

“Will you be alright, Stella?” Sting asked. Stella blinked and looked at him.

“Stella...doesn’t wanna go back,” she said softly.

“That makes two of us,” Auel grunted.

“Why do we have to go back?” she asked, looking earnestly at Sting.

“Neo told us to take out that ZAFT ship,” he explained. Stella blinked, obviously not understanding.

“...but...Neo didn’t protect...”

Sting shrugged. “Orders are orders,” he said. “We have to follow them, or else.”

“Fucking Neo,” Auel snarled.

The hangar operator appeared on Sting’s screen. “RGX-01 Chaos is clear for launch.”

Sting closed the visor of his helmet. “Sting Oakley, Chaos, launching!”

The Chaos launched with a blast of exhaust; its Phase Shift activated with a flash, and the mobile suit took off with a roar.

Sting glanced over his shoulder; the Abyss skimmed over the water, the Gaia and Windam flew after him, and the Girty Lue’s six Dark Dagger Ls came up behind Neo's Windam. The Windam took the lead in the formation, and Neo’s masked face appeared on Sting’s screen.

“All units, listen up,” he said, with a strange smile on his face. “Currently the ZAFT battleship Minerva is on Lodonia Island, playing with something they really shouldn’t be playing with. We are going to go take it away. Understood?”

“Yes sir!” the Dagger pilots answered. Sting scowled, strangling his protests in his throat, and nodded wordlessly.

“Good,” Neo said. “Today we sink the Minerva, once and for all!”

The mobile suits roared off into the sky.

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The Force Impulse formed in midair as the Minerva’s mobile suits launched; up ahead, Shinn could barely see the shapes of Bogey 1’s mobile suits charging at them.

“They might be trying to destroy the facility,” Shiho warned as the Savior rose into the air. “If they are, they might be carrying special weapons.”

“Then we’ll take them all down!” Heine snarled. “Those barbarians won’t survive today!”

The sky was dark with clouds; it was already pouring rain. A bolt of lightning lit up the sky; Shinn narrowed his eyes at the oncoming enemies.

For Stella’s sake, he thought, I’ll end this damned war and build a new world!

The mobile suits approached; he felt the pressure from the Gaia once again.

It’s the same...the same as Stella...

The Gaia opened fire with its beam rifle; Shinn deflected its shot with his shield and fired back. The Gaia switched to its beam saber and charged, slamming its saber down against Shinn’s shield. He drew his own saber and swung back; the Gaia darted away, firing its beam cannons. Shinn dove over the shots, and the Gaia and Impulse met with a shower of sparks.

“You can’t be Stella!” Shinn shouted at the Gaia. “You’re not Stella!”

The Gaia surged forward; Shinn grunted under the pressure and swung back with his saber. The Gaia deflected its saber stroke and retaliated with its own; Shinn batted it aside, and the mobile suits burst apart with a blaze of exhaust. The Gaia showered Shinn with beam shots and CIWS fire; Shinn rocketed through the sky, taking cover behind his shield. He charged forward again, saber drawn back for another blow, but once again the Gaia blocked his swing, and the two mobile suits pushed and strained against each other in midair.

Shinn clenched his teeth as the Gaia struggled against him.

You won’t get in my way!

The Impulse surged, throwing the Gaia back. It rocketed up into the air; Shinn followed with a scream.

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Shiho grunted as the Chaos’s beam shots slammed against the Savior’s shield, forcing it back. She fired back with her plasma cannons, but the Chaos jetted to the side. An instant later, she found herself staring the Chaos in the face as it rammed her with its shield. The Savior tumbled towards the ocean; the Chaos lined up for a finishing shot, but the GOUF Ignited’s heat rod curled around its beam rifle. Heine yanked the rifle out of the Chaos’s hand with his left-hand heat rod and slashed it in half with his beam sword. As Shiho struggled to recollect her wits, the Chaos drew its beam saber and charged at the GOUF, and the two mobile suits met with a crash.

“No you don’t, Natural bastard!” Heine shouted; the GOUF heaved forward, pushing the Chaos away, and attacked with upraised beam sword. The Chaos and the GOUF slammed together, swords crossed.

Shiho glanced over her shoulder at the Minerva and Bogey 1. The Minerva opened fire with a storm of missiles; Bogey 1 cut them all down with a CIWS burst and fired back with its beam cannons, and the Minerva quickly banked to port and barely dodged the blasts. Shiho took off towards Bogey 1, reverting the Savior to its mobile armor mode, but a blaze of beam fire rose to meet her, and down below, she saw the Abyss darting along the water, its shoulder shells open.

“They’re always in our way,” Shiho growled, transforming the Savior again and opening fire with her beam rifle. The Abyss darted away from her shots, but Lunamaria’s ZAKU came diving in on its Guul with its beam cannon, and the Abyss was forced to leap into the air and dodge her blast.

“Always harassing us!” Shiho shouted, wheeling around towards Bogey 1. Its CIWS turrets blazed, filling the sky will bullets; Shiho cursed as two black Daggers swept in with bazookas, opening fire. She scowled, drawing back behind her shield and drawing a beam saber. “Today you’re going down!”

One of the Daggers drew a beam saber and swept in; Shiho deflected its swing, forcing its arm upward, and slashed off its left arm with a lightning-quick slash. The Dagger pulled back, firing its bazooka at her and knocking her backward.

A beam blast tore by as Shiho regained her balance; the beam shot drilled through the Dagger, destroying it, and Rey’s ZAKU Phantom rocketed by overhead on its Guul, with the purple Alliance mobile suit on its tail.

There was a thundering explosion; Shiho looked sharply over at the Minerva, and found it spewing smoke as a thick beam blast blew off its portside Tristan. It fired back with its remaining Tristan; a moment later, the blast destroyed two of Bogey 1’s beam cannons, and both ships reeled from each other’s blows.

“Dammit,” Shiho grunted, turning towards Bogey 1 again. The ship opened fire with its CIWS emplacements; Shiho dove through their fire and charged.

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“DIE you motherfucker!” Auel screamed; the Abyss streaked along the water and unleashed a flurry of beam shots on the trailing red ZAKU Warrior. It deflected two of the beams with its shield and dodged the rest; Auel snarled a curse and fired his chest cannon at the ZAKU’s Guul. The ZAKU rocketed up into the air, dodging the shot; Auel fired the booster, leaping up after the ZAKU and raising his beam lance. “Go to hell!” He brought the lance down on the ZAKU, igniting the beam blade.

The ZAKU took the brunt of the Abyss’s blow to its shield, and forced the lance to the side, swinging its arm out to knock the Abyss’s lance wide. Auel snarled again as the ZAKU raised its beam cannon and fired; he responded by firing his chest cannon again, and the two blasts smashed into each other with a forceful explosion that threw both mobile suits back. Auel glided over the water, firing the boosters again to dart over the water’s surface and fire at the ZAKU.

A storm of missiles from the Guul smashed down into the water around the Abyss; Auel burst through the smoke with a scream, firing his weapons wildly. Up above, the ZAKU banked out of the way of an errant beam shot and fired its beam cannon again, but missed as Auel darted out of harm’s way.

“Fucking bastard!” Auel screamed. The ZAKU fired its beam cannon a second time; Auel cancelled it out with a chest cannon shot and dove over the explosion, twirling his lance over his head. “DIE ALREADY!”

The Abyss slammed its lance down onto the ZAKU’s shield, and kicked the ZAKU in the chest before it could force his lance aside. The ZAKU drew a beam tomahawk from its shield with its left hand and hurled it at him, and he barely deflected it with his shoulder shell.

“What the hell is your problem?!” Auel shouted as he returned to skimming along the water. “Just die like you’re supposed to!” He opened fire with another blaze of beam fire, this time putting a shot through the ZAKU’s beam cannon; it abandoned the cannon in midair, using it as a shield to block Auel’s follow-up chest cannon attack. As the cannon exploded, the ZAKU dove up above the blast and returned fire with its beam rifle.

Auel blocked the shots with his shoulder shield, but blinked in surprise as the world seemed to shake for a moment. He glanced up at the Girty Lue; it had lost two of its six Gottfrieds and taken several punishing hits to its hull. It fired back with its upper starboard Gottfried, shooting down a storm of missiles with its CIWS in the process. Auel followed the Girty Lue’s shot and watched it slam into the Minerva’s hull just above the starboard wing. A forceful explosion tore up the Minerva’s side. The Minerva fired back with its triple cannon, though, and the Girty Lue lost another Gottfried.

“Fucking ZAFT bastards!” Auel shouted. “Just die already!”

The ZAKU fired at him with its beam rifle; Auel screamed and fired back.

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The Impulse rumbled as the Gaia brought its beam saber down; Shinn clenched his teeth, his entire body jolted with a current of pressure from the pilot. He felt Stella’s distorted presence again; he saw her again, soaking wet in the shallows near Port Said, staring at him with wide, frightened eyes.

“YOU CAN’T BE STELLA!” he shrieked, surging forward. The Gaia raised its shield; Shinn slammed it backward with a punishing kick, and the Gaia staggered away, firing its CIWS. Shinn grunted as the bullets rattled against the Impulse’s Phase Shift armor. He screamed as the Gaia took off, diving backward through the sky, firing its beam cannons. Shinn deflected its shots with his shield, charging after the retreating Gaia.

“I’LL KILL YOU!” Shinn screamed. “I’LL KILL ALL OF YOU BEFORE YOU CAN EVER HURT STELLA!”

The Gaia lunged forward; Shinn ducked beneath its beam saber swipe and charged up behind it.

The Gaia ducked desperately underneath Shinn’s finishing saber stab and rocketed backward, over the island. Shinn gave chase with a scream, beam saber pulled back, deflecting the Gaia’s beam cannon blasts with his shield.

“STOP RUNNING!” Shinn shouted; the Impulse roared after the Gaia. The Gaia swung around for another attack; Shinn saw the seed explode in his mind’s eye—

The Gaia’s saber slammed down against Shinn’s; the Impulse kicked the Gaia’s arm skyward, and with a primal scream, Shinn slashed open the Gaia’s cockpit and kicked it in the chest. The stricken Gaia slammed into the ground, skidding to a smoking halt amidst a copse of trees. Shinn landed in the trench the Gaia had torn into the ground and charged, beam saber raised for the kill—

Something caught his eye; he stopped, staring at the Gaia’s torn armor. He magnified the image; his dull, feral eyes went wide in horror.

There was a pilot in a black flight suit with pink markings; the helmet in its entirety had been shattered and lay around the Gaia’s broken cockpit. Underneath, framed by blood-matted blonde hair, was a face Shinn knew all too well.

“That’s...”

He magnified the image again; he saw her face; his entire body went numb with disbelief.

“...Stella!”

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

Across the battlefield, inside the Chaos, Sting glanced at the island. He saw the Impulse Gundam, standing victoriously over the fallen Gaia. His eyes widened in shock.

“Stella!” he shouted. The Savior rocketed into his face; Sting let out a feral growl and kicked the Savior in the face. He immediately went rocketing towards the island.

Down below, a pilot in a red ZAFT flight suit was pulling Stella out of the Gaia’s cockpit. Sting charged, screaming, and opened fire with his CIWS—

The white ZAKU Phantom darted into his line of fire, deflecting his shots with its shield and ramming into him head-on.

“Sting!” Neo’s voice shouted; above the Windam came darting in with a beam rifle blast. “What the hell are you doing?!”

“Stella’s being captured!” Sting shouted back.

“Not if I can help it!” Auel cried; the Abyss darted over the water towards the island, but a beam shot stopped it and the red ZAKU flashed in over its head, ramming it aside.

Sting dove towards the island, dodging the ZAKUs’ beam shots, but it was already too late; the ZAFT pilot returned to the Impulse’s cockpit, with Stella in his arms.

“Retrieve the Gaia!” Neo shouted. “We won’t be able to get Stella back now!”

“WHAT?!” Sting shouted; his eyes flashed and he looked up in rage at Neo’s purple Windam. Up above, the orange GOUF Ignited sliced a Dark Dagger in half, ducking underneath the explosion.

“The ship’s been damaged too badly!” Neo yelled back. “We’re retreating!”

“But Stella—” Auel began.

“DO IT!” Neo roared.

The Chaos and the Abyss hesitated, and then swept in to seize the fallen Gaia and pull it up into the air.

Neo showered the ZAFT mobile suits with a storm of missiles; he could already see the Minerva, staggering out of the air and spewing clouds of smoke and fire. They had at least done some damage to the ship, but at the cost of Stella and every one of his Dark Daggers.

He scowled and glanced back at the Chaos and Abyss as they hauled the Gaia into the ailing Girty Lue’s hangar. This was a complication he had not foreseen.

The Windam took off as the Girty Lue escaped.

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

Shinn started running as soon as his feet touched the ground. He plowed through Yolant and Vino before the latter could speak, storming towards the infirmary. Stella was unconscious in his arms; Shinn’s eyes were still dull and feral, now as he concentrated solely on getting Stella to the infirmary. Nobody would stop him; he’d go through Chairman Dullindal if he had to.

The ship shook as the mobile suits returned; Shinn smashed like a raging bull through the corridors and their crowded crews as they tried to repair the Minerva’s vast damage. He rammed the infirmary door switch with his shoulder; it slid open and Shinn burst into the room like a tornado.

“What the—” the head doctor began.

“Help her!” Shinn shouted. He thrust Stella into his arms. “You have to help her!”

“But—what—who is she?” the doctor exclaimed. Shinn laid Stella out on an operating table.

“Goddammit, HELP HER!” Shinn roared, grabbing the doctor by the collar and screaming in his face. The cowed doctor shakily assented and backed away towards Stella as the nurses converged on her and set to work pulling her out of her shredded flight suit.

Shiho was the next to burst into the infirmary, followed closely by the other pilots.

“Shinn!” Shiho shouted, advancing towards him like a freight train. “You left the battlefield without orders! What the hell were you thinking?!” She raised her hand to slap him—

Shinn swiveled around, catching her blow and shoving her back. The pilots fell silent, staring uneasily at his wild, lightless eyes.

“I’m not going to abandon her to die!” he shouted.

Lunamaria blinked in surprise, noticing tears at the edges of Shinn’s eyes.

“What you did was against ZAFT military law!” Heine yelled back, putting himself in front of Shiho and pointing vindictively at Shinn. “You have no right to take enemy prisoners aboard of your own free will!”

Shinn’s eyes flashed. “This is Stella!”

The room fell silent, save for the sounds of the medical crew working on Stella.

“She’s one of those...?” Luna trailed off, looking at the bloodied girl on the operating table. “This is who you met the other day...?”

“I promised her I would protect her!” Shinn snarled. “I promised her I wouldn’t let her die! And here I am, protecting her and not letting her die! I won’t let any of you get in my way! I‘ll protect her with my life if I have to!”

“Shinn!” Shiho snapped. “Calm down! You can’t expect us to let you off just because you have an emotional attachment to this Earth Alliance science project! What you did was criminal—”

“SHUT UP!” Shinn screamed, with enough force to strangle the rest of Shiho’s words in her throat. Shinn straightened up, looking like a cornered animal, ready to spring, balling his fists and casting over the rest of the Minerva’s pilots a chilling glare. “If you want to hurt her, you’ll have to go through me! I’ll kill all of you if I have to!” Luna gasped in disbelief, her eyes going wide; Rey blinked in surprise. “I WILL PROTECT STELLA!”

“What the hell is with your hang-up on her?” Heine shouted back, unfazed by Shinn’s anger. He approached slowly, glowering back at Shinn.

“She wants to be safe!” Shinn snapped back. “She relied on me to be safe! She trusted me! SHE CARED ABOUT ME!”

Rey stepped in front of Heine, stopping him.

“Shinn is already angry,” he said calmly. “Don’t make him angrier, or you will be spending a great deal more time in this room.”

Heine snarled furiously at Shinn and Rey, and stalked out of the room, sputtering curses.

“I won’t forget this, Shinn!” Shiho snapped, pointing vehemently at him. “Just because you’re a war hero in the PLANTs and you captured a live Extended doesn’t mean you’ll walk off from this! You're still subject to the law!” She stormed out of the infirmary, shoving Luna aside angrily.

Rey turned to face Shinn. “Shinn,” he began.

Shinn turned his blazing eyes on Rey next. “Don’t start with another speech about the Chairman, Rey!” he growled. “You told me to fight for the sake of a new world for Stella, and I did, and now look where she is!” His face twisted into a hideous scowl. “Ever since the Chairman brought all this Newtype shit into my life, all I’ve done is suffer, and all you‘ve done is keep shoving it down my throat! Well look where it’s gotten me now! Tell the Chairman to go to hell! Tell Kira Yamato to go to hell! And you can go to hell too! I’m not going to be the world’s goddamn punching bag!”

Rey’s eyes went wide as Shinn spoke. He opened his mouth, but for once, no sound could come out; he had nothing to say.

“...scary...” a weak voice murmured. Shinn’s eyes went wide; he spun around and shoved the nurses apart, leaning over Stella. He took her hand gently, his eyes brimming with tears.

“Stella...” he murmured. “I...I’m sorry...”

“...it's...scary...” she murmured. She blinked and looked around slowly. Her eyes began to widen; for a moment, they flashed, and then Shinn was thrown backward as Stella leapt up, screaming and thrashing. The nurses and doctors ducked as she launched herself off the operating table and straight at the head doctor.

Shinn seized her by the shoulders in midair and pulled her close.

“Stella!” he shouted. “Calm down, Stella!”

“Scary!” she shrieked. “Stella wants to go back to Neo! It's scary!”

“Calm down!” Shinn shouted back. “Nobody will hurt you!”

“STELLA DOESN’T WANNA DIE!” Stella screamed. She struggled and thrashed against Shinn’s grip; Shinn wheeled her around to look into her terrified face.

“Stella!” he shouted. “I’ll protect you!”

Stella blinked, seeing Shinn’s face, the three scars she had left there. Her body relaxed as she stared at Shinn.

“I’ll protect you,” Shinn panted. “Remember? Do you remember me? Shinn?”

“Shinn...” she murmured. Her bandages had fallen off in the struggle; she was bleeding again. Her eyelids drooped; Shinn glanced at the medical crew as they stared in fright at Stella.

“Just stay calm,” Shinn said soothingly. “The people here will take care of you. They’ll help you get better. None of them will hurt you. I’ll make sure of it.”

“Shinn...will...protect...” she whispered. She went limp; Shinn stared expectantly at the head doctor, and the medical crew hesitantly put her back on the operating table and went back to work on her.

Rey glanced furtively at Luna, and they both left; Shinn remained, watching, with tears in his eyes.

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

Talia rubbed her aching temple in frustration, sitting in the Captain's chair on the bridge. Shiho and Heine stood off to the side, both looking outraged.

“Our first priority is to get back to Port Said,” Talia said, straightening up and looking authoritatively at Shiho and Heine. “The ship is heavily damaged, and we barely managed to get it back in flying condition last night. We are going back to Port Said; after that we will deal with disciplinary measures.”

“He’s violent!” Heine protested, clenching his fists in rage. “He threatened to kill us!”

“I told you, we’ll deal with this later!” Talia snapped, rising and staring furiously at him. Heine blinked in surprise, taking an involuntary step back. “Yes, he threatened to kill you and he represents a threat. But he also brought us a live Extended, and took the Gaia out of commission for the time being. It’s of no consequence right now. None of it will matter if we don’t get back to Port Said for repairs.” She scowled at Heine. “You are both dismissed.”

Her glare said everything; Heine stormed off the bridge without bothering to salute. Shiho saluted duly, looking defeated, and slowly followed Heine.

“But why would Shinn do something like this?” Arthur asked quietly, glancing at Talia. She slumped into her seat, muttering in frustration.

“I don’t know,” she said, “but this is a matter I don’t need right now.” She glanced up at Arthur. “We’ll be at Port Said soon. Inform them that we require emergency assistance.”

Arthur saluted promptly. “Yes ma’am.”

Talia stared forward, out the bridge windows.

Shinn...what grave are you digging for us now?

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

To be continued...