6 Chapter 4

-Four Leaves Corp. Lab-

Engineer Kadoya briefly explained what had happened earlier, about the entire situation where Ryutaro had suddenly disappeared, while the staff are currently working to search for the anomaly about the disappearance of Ryutaro's physical body.

Oldman Dojima remain calm as he absorbed the information as much as possible and try to make any sense. Despite the explanation seems a bit exaggerating for logic, even he himself seem didn't believe it.

"I understand the situation. Thank you for sharing the information, Engineer Kadoya. If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna make some call?" Oldman Dojima asked Kadoya, while excused himself.

Oldman Dojima pinched the bridge of his nose, he really don't want to inform the young master. He sighed and pulled out his smartphone, and then call the young master.

"Young master, I've something to tell you. The truth is…"

-Pilot Quarter, Versalius-

"SHIT!" An angered white haired pilot hissed as he slammed his helmet against a bulkhead, the red helmet rebounded across the room spinning aimlessly. "How the fuck did it end up like this?" He growled to no one in particular.

From the observation lounge, all of the G-weapon pilots were waiting patiently, including Ahtrun who had travelled to the ship to regroup with his teammates and wait for repairs to be completed on their machines. Things had been quite tense, and Athrun had to contemplate the delicate situation they were pitted with.

"Calm down Yzak." Nicol attempting to pacify the hot headed pilot.

"Calm down?" Yzak shot an angry glare to Nicol. "One mobile suit kicked the shit out us, destroyed an entire GINN platoon, even destroyed one of our Laurasia class ship and you're telling me to calm down?!"

"Yzak, enough, we've got enough problems as it stands, and we don't need to add this to the list." A tired looking Athrun remarked as he rubbed his eyes.

"That's easy for you to say, you spent almost this cluster fuck in deadlock against the Strike, before taken out by that mobile suit." Yzak hissed as he levelled a glare at Athrun.

Athrun didn't bother looking back and replied. "The Strike's pilot is more persistent than I can afford, he's not going to just roll over Yzak." He responded, concealing the nature of what he felt.

The white haired pilot made a 'tsk' before flicking his attention away. Nicol gave a concerned look over to Athrun who turned away his attention, deciding to keep himself reserved for the time being, he had more pressing matters on his mind. Everything with this war was going to hell, his friend, ZAFT and now Lacus.

In reality Athrun was in turmoil and he was angry, about all of this, fighting Kira, having to choose between his friend and his duty to his people, then there was Lacus who was caught up in the middle of this. He was doing all he could but it felt like it was overwhelming him, the only one keeping perspective seemed to be the commander. It made him wonder how the man continued to push himself forward like this.

"Why are you so silent?" Yzak asked at Dearka.

"I don't think I can say anything, you've venting enough frustration for all of us." Dearka joked.

"Realy funny." Yzak said with snark.

The mood settled somewhat as Yzak buzzed off to sit on the couch, crossing his legs and looking intently at the hangar from the window. Dearka seemed indifferent, though from Athrun's experience, Dearka had gotten off lightly compared to all of them, the Buster's pilot changed topics for them as he stared up at the ceiling.

"Man talk about shitty timing, that new mobile suit really terrifying." Dearka sighed as he rolled his shoulder joints and yawned tiredly while gently floating off the wall. "Could have wiped out all of us, if not for that uncalled event". "I never imagined a mobile suit being able to do what that machine did, this goes to show that the Alliance aren't push overs."

"The Beast, that's what we're gonna called that new mobile suit." Athrun said with grimaced, still remembered how powerless The Aegis in front of the new mobile suit.

"Hmph, what a fitting name for a barbarian Naturals." Yzak said still looking at the hangar.

Their machines had all sustained damage, The Blitz, Buster and Duel got the light one, while Aegis arm was going to need to be stripped down and replaced, at that moment repair teams had fashioned a replacement to supplement the scrapped arm of the machine. The new Aegis arm which had been placed wasn't capable of using phase shift, and it'd be another day before they could manufacture the proper materials to fix it.

Blitz's unit was busy getting a stress test to see the extent of the structural damage inflicted on its armour, so far the unit looked worse for wear. So far the machine was getting a quick clean up and recharge, after which the engineers and techs reassured him his machine was in working order.

But amidst their survival the group couldn't help but contemplate circumstance, their battle hadn't gone as planned, everything had gone to utter hell when The Beast showed up and promptly beat them to hell in a collective ass kicking.

It proved that their enemies were more intelligent and resourceful than what credit they had given them, this new machine had trashed their forces in a single battle; it was certainly an eye opener as to the machine's ability, but also the pilot.

Whoever was operating the mobile suit knew fully well how to used it, having succeeded in pushing them back without breaking a sweat given how it easily destroyed one of Laurasia class ship. It was a dilemma which had drawn a lot of attention, there were reports that Cruset and the senior officers had to complete a full report for Zala as soon as possible. Cruset took immense effort to emphasise the need for reinforcements, due to the risk of the Archangel reaching the 8th Fleet.

Regardless they had a hostage situation on their hands, and it would require a resolution and soon. And for Athrun he felt his gut wrenching from the thought of what they would have to do, he didn't know what to do, amidst all of this. Killing his friend for the sake of this war, and trying to bring back Lacus alive, it was eating him up inside.

He closed his eyes and thought about the dilemma he would face.

-Conference room, Archangel-

"I'm Lieutenant Murrue Ramius, acting Captain of the Archangel, and this is Ensign Natarle Badriguel. We've been introduced on the comms, but its a pleasure to formally meet you." Ramius says.

"Lieutenant Mu La Flaga, thanks for not shootin' us too." Mu says.

"Well, codename Zero,a mercenary. Pilot of Gundam Barbatos Ultima-Rex. Just call by my codename Zero" Ryu said as he adjust himself into the chair.

Both paused, looking to one another and then back to Ryutaro. "What's a Gundam?" Mu asked.

Ryutaro smirked. "When you activated the machine, the dash displays General Unilateral Neuro-link Dispersive Autonomic Maneuver. The acronym for that is G.U.N.D.A.M. "

Murrue thought on that one. How could he have known that, if he wasn't informed? Still… "Does yours say the same thing?"

Ryu shook his head. "No. Just simply Gundam. Don't ask me why."

"Ohh, btw I'm not a Coordinator." Ryu said, throwing another bomb.

"If you're not a Coordinator, then how're you able to pilot the mobile suit?" Mu asks, laying down the thought likely on everyone's minds.

"Video Games." Ryu said as a wave of disbelief washing over the room.

"Stop fooling around!!". Badgiruel said frustated

"It just comes down to micromanaging the systems, and setting up domino effects and logic switches in the programming." Ryu said while 'leaning' back in the chair as Captain Murrue clears her throat.

"Lets say we believe you for now. Where did you get that Mobile Suit?" Murrue asked.

"None of your business." Ryu said .

The room fell silent for a while

"Are you sure you're not a coordinator? I'm having a hard time believing you." Badgiruel said clearly annoyed.

"Unless I was lied to my entire life, yes. Beside, I don't care if you guys trust me or not." Ryu said clearly indicating that he was done with her question.

"Alright, moving along. The main thing we want to know right now is what your allegiance is and your objectives." Murrue said.

Ryu close his eyes and take a breath to compile a response. He then take off his helmet, revealing his face. Clearly shocking Murrue, Badgiruel and Mu, because according to them, the pilot age of this mysterious mobile suit not even close to 20, maybe the same age as Kira.

Ryu then open both of his eyes "I've nothing to do with this war, I don't care and will not lay a finger to either side as long as ZAFT and Earth Alliance keep their hands off of me.

"You've that much power why you're not enlist with the Alliance, we don't want to drag this war any longer!" Murrue said.

"What makes you think we can trust you after hearing that?" Badgiruel cut in.

"Once again, i don't care if you trust me or not, but right now my hat is thrown in with your lot, play nice and it might stay that way." Ryu said glaring at Badgiruel.

"Noted. Now, we're almost done here but I have one favor to ask." Murrue said.

"You said earlier, that you're a mercenary. I want to hire you to…" Murrue

"But captain…!!" Badgiruel cut in, but suddenly stopped because the glared she received from the captain.

Ryu sighed and shaking his head "If you want to hire me as a military for Earth Alliance, I'll reject it right now. Beside like I said earlier, I've my own reason for helping you guys. For the time being, i'll stay aboard the Archangel. You can consider me as a mercenary if you like. I'll fight to protect this ship." He then looked to Murrue. "Is that acceptable to you?"

Murrue clearly thinking for a while before finally she nodded. "Yes. I'll have one of the officer's quarters readied for you. It shouldn't be much of an issue, since we're pretty much traveling with a near-skeleton crew. You can transfer your belongings there when you're ready." She paused, and then smiled. "Welcome to the crew. I'm sure we'll need your help in the days to come."

Not long after, an emergency sirens rang through alerting both of Ryutaro and Murrue.

"What's going on…?" Murrue asked with disbelief

-Kira's room, Archangel-

Kira had retreated to his room to get some rest. Well, the room he was borrowing with another crew member since his own quarters were being used by Lacus. Said girl was what was on his mind, and the situation she was in. He didn't like it one bit that she was here. That she was being used. He feared for her future and what would happen once they met up with the rest of the fleet. He was certain they wouldn't just let her go. Maybe I can speak with the captain, he thought, staring at the ceiling of his bunk. He was sure she would understand. They did say they would contact the ZAFT ship to talk about returning Lacus.

But that was hours ago. Too long. They should have returned her by now, and that worried Kira even more.

Unable to rest and with worry for the pop-singer's fate weighing on his mind, Kira decided to follow what his feelings were telling him to do. He wouldn't let Lacus stay on the ship nor would he allow the Minister to do with her as he or those men at Alliance HQ wanted. He snuck around; there was only 1 guard by the door, assigned by the Captain after the recent fiasco.

He would see to it that she was returned. He approached the room, out stood one of the regular guards posted after the debacle from the day before.

"Hey, what are you doing here?"

"I came to visit Ms Lacus and I brought you some water from the canteen, the lieutenant said your rotation won't change in another hour."

"Ow, nuts…" The guard said frustrated.

"I'm just passing on a message, can I go in?"

"Alright." The guard said tiredly, the man knew Kira was allowed access to Lacus.

"Ms. Lacus."

"Huh, Mr Yamato?" Lacus said perplexed at his sudden appearance in her room at night.

"We need to get going now, we don't have a lot of time before someone find out what I'm planning on doing." He said urging her.

They exited the room about 30 minutes later to find the guard unconscious, dozed off from some sleeping pills he slipped into the man's bottle, he'd have to apologise to the doctor for using the medicine in the cabinet but he had no other choice. He stuffed the unconscious guard into the room before they exited; there wouldn't be a rotation change for another half an hour.

He also informed the guard that the other would leave his spot early for a bathroom break, so they wouldn't bother checking Lacus' room for a while. It'd be enough time for him to escape through the hangar bay, and so he took Lacus through the ship. Though along the way, they bumped into his friends Sai and Miriallia. He pleaded his case with them, and though they first looked hesitant about his plan, it was Sai who spoke up in agreement with Kira.

This of course shocked Miriallia. "But Sai! She's…"

"An innocent…" Kira said. "She doesn't belong here, just like none of us do." He looked to Lacus, and back to Miriallia. "She just wants to go home. To her family. To her father." "That's all I want to do. To make sure she gets home safely."

"And after that?" Miriallia asked. "What happens then?"

Kira blinked. "What do you mean?"

She bite her lip slightly, but said, "I mean, you won't leave us, will you Kira?"

"Miri?" Sai asked, looking to the girl in question. "You don't think Kira would…"

"No, I won't leave you." All eyes again focused on Kira, his face taking on a serious look to it. "You guys are my friends… and I won't lie to you. The pilot of the Aegis… is an old friend of mine." Gasps came from all around, even from Lacus, who hadn't know till then. "I don't want to fight him. I don't want to fight at all… but all of you are people that I want to protect." He moved up, taking Miriallia's hand to his. "I promise I will come back."