Super Robot Wars/Z2/Story Summary/Part 4 (2024)

CHAPTER 30. Straight Fulcrum

Suzaku's going to have a pretty rough time integrating into the team, givenhow many of its members he ran into when they were under deep cover. Heasks Hiiro if Rilina knows what his day job is, and Setsuna immediately comesto Hiiro's defense. He's been assigned to keep an eye on the new recruit,though there's really little need: all the pilots are eager to meet Euphemia'sfamous knight. The best advice Shinn has for Suzaku is to be himself and tonot try to wall himself away from the rest of the team. This is a place wherenationality and other factors are secondary to JUSTICE(tm). Suzaku startsto soften up under all the goodwill and asks for a round of introductions.

If there's anything on Hiiro's mind, he won't reveal it to most on the team...Setsuna is one of his only (pseudo-)confidants. At the top of the list rightnow is Crow, whose resilience may be his biggest asset. Certainly he'swell enough to get up out of bed and run his mouth, but his busted-ass mechisn't so fortunate. Only its creator can fully repair the darn thing, andby some strange coincidence Zexis' course will take them near the Scott Lab.Maybe he can even get the thing up and running again in time for the strategysession Elgan will convene. Lockon asks about Crow's mysterious employer:is she good-looking? Good looking, yes; aggravating? Also yes...

That's enough to let Crow go meet Traia alone, and it's not 100% clear whoshe's been more worried about: Crow, or the Blaster. She gestures at themostly vacant lab as proof of how much of a pariah she's become within Axion,which in turn is the target of a lot of the world's ire. "Anti-Trust"sentiment doesn't even begin to describe it, and most of the workers have beenrecalled for their own safety -- leaving the facilities to be defended by a"modest" array of bioengineered horrors, lethal antipersonell nanomachines, andother such trifles. Traia scowls and says that her former coworkers are betteroff finding work elsewhere; she's only here so she can finish work on theBlaster, solve the mystery of the VX, and stick the resulting report up Carlos'ass.

As for Esther, she's come out of her room and started working as Traia'sassistant. Her rage has only grown with time, and she's in no mood to seeCrow just now. Amazingly, Traia informs Crow that he's now repaid his fulldebt with interest, thanks to her diverting the salary for the lab folks to hisaccount. Crow's seen enough in his life to know what this really means:despite her bravado, Traia is planning to shutter her lab. Neither herresolve nor Esther's vengeance mean much against a brute-force shortage ofdough. Crow thinks a moment, and tells her to use the money she was going topay him to pay for improvements to the Blaster instead. He's about to go sayhi to Esther anyway, but Traia stops him and asks what's so special about her.Is he trying to make ammends for the Prometheus Experiment? Maaaaybe...

Esther is, as predicted, not happy to see him at first. But rather thanmake some lame excuse about why he hasn't defeated MD yet, Crow tells herthat he still means to defeat both it, and the Imperium supporting it too.She despairs of this, thinking they're too big a target, so Crow tells hera little charm to ward off her doubts: "so what?" So what if the Imperium canburn whole countries to ash? So what if Crow is more impoverished than theentire third world combined? He still means to keep his promises, and Estherbetter not forget it. She yells at him to get lost, but just then the klaxonssound -- maybe it wasn't such a good idea to come here alone after all...

Margret's seized the opportunity to attack Crow when he's lightly protected,and all Crow can fight back in is an Axion Scout SP VR Maxima. Traia's fastwith her repairs on the Blaster, but Margret ensures that Crow can't get to thelab safely. Esther rushes out in the Blaster instead, determined to attackher tormenteres in his stead, but Crow yells at her that he won't let herthrow her life away at something clearly beyond her skills. It's enough forCrow that she wants to win so badly.

Margret tells Crow that she'll actually wait till he gets aboard his propermech before completing their duel: she _is_ a knight after all. She warns Crownot to interpret this as fraternization, and with Crow's instinctive fear ofwomen there's little worry about that. Eim isn't going to let thistransaction complete though: he pops up and berates Margret for doing her jobwrong. Crow may be unworthy to be killed by Eim's hands, but he's stillworth killing -- his death will save the world! Crow's sick of Eim's bullsh*tand can tell that Margret doesn't really want to fight him in the first place,so he tells her to step off and let him take on Eim directly.

Margret tells Crow to choose between committing suicide or forcing her toattack Esther, and Crow's choice is clear: instead of a call between savinghis own life versus another's, it's all about pulverizing whoever forced such achoice on him. At his outburst, the Blaster's VX system suddenly springs tolife and gives him the chance to switch mecha. Eim yells at Margret, whotries to get in the way of Crow's thrust at Eim. Well, she succeeds in gettingin the way, but thanks to Traia's newly-developed "SPIGOT"s, her mech getsdemolished in a single blow. Crow actually apologizes to her, saying that heonly attacked her because she tried to protect Eim, and just then the MD movesto protect her from further harm.

Eim orders her to get her ass out of the way, gushing over the beautiful sightof a rain of light torn asunder, of flowers ripped to shreds and the oceanaflame. It is the night of the galaxy's lament, the pouring forth of billionsof blue waters from within the box, the climax of a nightmare once dreamt.He somehow dismisses Margret and tells Crow that he's finally worth killing.Of course, after all that ranting Crow isn't alone either. Many among Zexishave a score to settle with Eim, especially Holland with his plans forrecreating fairy tales or whatever it is he's up to. Traia tells Crow thatthe SPIGOT system will let him channel the VX's immense power directly intohis weapons without anything (on his side) exploding. With Esther watching,Crow tells the irate Eim that he'll have to wait: Crow's principal target isthe MD.

 Eim is a rather dangerous dude, but there's dangerous and then there's _dangerous_. Of course, he's also not putting forth his full strength until he can be assured that Crow's awakening has begun. Harvesting his life will come next, but that will wait for another occasion. For now, Eim bids the "wavering fulcrum" goodbye.

Moby Dick goes down in a giant fountain of grue, ending Crow's immediatequest and leaving him with a vaguely lonely feeling inside. He heads back tothe lab to hear Traia explain more about this SPIGOT contraption, and tellsthe rest of Zexis he may or may not be back. As he leaves the field, Asakim(lurking in the shadows) thinks that it will be he, not the False Black Sheep,to steal Crow's soul...

Traia herself is kind of at a loss to describe precisely why the VX systemkicked in during the battle. Her best efforts to prod it into actionexternally with the SPIGOT system came to nought, and yet something aboutCrow's mental state seems to have gotten through to it. Crow joshes her thatthis isn't some episode of the X-Files, but she tells him that the HPL are_in_fact_ researching occult-drive mecha as they speak. It shouldn't surpriseanyone if the VX turns out to be powered by Morale or crying babies or Godknows what else. In any case, Traia knows that there are vastly more fearsomeDBs yet waiting in the wings, and proclaims that the road to the Blaster'scompletion is still a long one. Oh, and since Crow seems so eager to continueas its test pilot, she's got some news for him: his debt has now ballooned to1.99M thanks to the expense of fixing and powering up the Blaster. Crow isliterally speechless, especially when he gets a whopping *10* G for defeatingthe MD itself. Esther then delivers a somewhat backhanded "thank you", andvows to keep helping Traia find a way to topple the Imperium once and for all.In fact, maybe she can serve as a test pilot! How hard can it be?

Back at the Imperium, Shubal is seriously taking Margret to task for returningwith her tail between her legs when Eim appears and intervenes on her behalf.After all, she did a decent job in the past battle, _and_ had her youngerbrother killed off and all. Uhh, howsthatagain? Yup, MD was apparently herlittle brother, which Crow so thoughtfully splattered all over the countryside.Tastes like chicken? You betcha. Margret's normally paper-white complexionnow turns an interesting shade of infra-green at the news, and Eim dismissesher so she can go be sick or whatever. His plan is pretty stereotypical:make her stronger by making her hate Crow, and see if Crow can fend her off.Zexis in general is to be allowed to live for a while: their existence willembolden other fools to attack the Imperium, who Gaiou will take greatpleasure in slaughtering.

Margret is, in fact, crushed over her inability to protect her younger brotherShane, and over being now truly all alone in this world. And with comradeslike hers, who needs enemies...?

CHAPTER 31. The Final Battle: Mars and Marg

Remember Marg? Kinda bishounen, kinda... captured by the forces of Evil?It's been a while. Evil works at a glacial speed in this world, as evidencedby the fact that Marg's only just now being prepared for some nefarious,ignominious purpose. He's actually insulting Zhul to his face and demandingto be executed, and in a way he will be: he's to be mind-wiped and convertedinto a loyal warrior to Zhul's cause -- and then sent to kill Mars. How youlike me now! Not well, in point of fact...

He's in remarkably good spirits when he awakens, which might have something todo with the hot sci-fi babe who names himself as his second-in-command. Shetells him that he's been assigned as Zhul's forward commander, and advises himnot to fret over his erased memories. Time to go fight Mars and Zexis!

Zexis have turned up at Elgan's place, marveling along the way at how Crowseems to keep getting himself ever deeper into debt. The sight of Elgan, thegrim-faced fabled Boatman, is strangely reassuring to the team. He's sort ofdown-to-earth, and has hearing radically better than his years would suggest.He says that he's got to get right to the point: he needs Zexis to chart thecourse of the world's future. That's what the CBs want to hear, as that'sbasically Ioria Schenberg had in mind -- though Sumeragi quickly concludes thatElgan doesn't have 100% total grip over the worlds' militaries. Apollo'sinstincts are making him twitchy about Elgan, but he doesn't think that Elgan'slying as such.

As Elgan is promising to forward any information he can find about the otherZeuth members who may have come to this world, word comes in from Ootsuka thatTakeru's (Earth) mother has been kidnapped. Obviously this is an underhandedgambit to get their hands on Takeru himself, but he means to do whatever ittakes to get his mother back from them. Show up alone, sans mech? Sure, whynot? Rose is waiting there with some espers, apparently sent to psychic-power Mars into a quivering wreck.

Why this was a good idea I have no clue, as Takeru's powers far outstripZhul's garden-variety goons. Then again, Rose is playing a battle ofattrition dreamt up by Marg himself, and as time wears on it seems to beworking. But just then some sort of foe approaches the scene, and not oneof Earth origin. The foe isn't a mech at all, but the possee from theKurogane-ya! Yasu gleefully points out to Rose that anti-aircraft fire isn'tthe only way to take out missiles, and the contingent start demolishing theespers barehanded. Among them are the Getter team, who seem to have beenreally eating their Wheaties.

Rose frantically tells her forces to get to longer range, but the Zexis snipersaren't having any of that noise. Rose's next attempt to scatter the Zexisforces with her troops carrier goes disastrously awry when Kiriko shoots thedamn thing down with a _handgun_ (the mighty-yet-fictional Bauhauser M571"Armor Magnum"). Rose is terrified to see how well Zexis can fight withouttheir mecha, but Marg is far from finished. He's got Takeru's mother in hand,and of course doesn't recognize his brother when Takeru rushes over to effecta rescue. Marg not rescognizing him is crushing, but Tsubasa talks some senseinto him and the predictable mecha throwdown begins.

 In short order Ashura appears, demonstrating Dr. Hell's partnership with Zhul for all to see. Ashura has an interesting plan: make Takeru half-dead, then toss him out into space so the Antiproton Bomb will explode harmlessly. Like _that_ will fly with the rest of Zexis around! Rose resorts to tying Takeru's mom up and dangling her from the bridge, demanding that Marin surrender or forfeit her life. The snipers are too far away to shoot out the rope holding her, which means it's time for another all-too-conveniently timed entrance: Bardios. Yeah, the one with the teleportation and stuff. Oh, and good buddy God Sigma, with the Invulnerable ego^WGod Shield. Save the re-introductions for later and get on with the vengeance now!

 When Takeru approaches Marg, he realizes that something is out of place and should try to contact his brother. Zhul's brainwashing becomes clear, but Marg is infuriated at having his thoughts invaded and won't immediately regain his lost past -- the only option is to shoot down his ship. Do this with Takeru for an extra bonus goodie!

The two "newcomers" have actually been around in this world for some time, butthey've deliberately been kept hidden by Tanaka as a sort of trump card justin case Zexis needed help. Well, help was needed and they're out of the closetnow. We get the obligatory backstory on Marin and the others, including how anew home was found for the S-1'ians. Marin and co explain that they werestill in deep space, heading back toward Earth, when a Quake broughtr themhere: teleportation not just across worlds, but through space as well. Rogerhas the right idea: the Zeuth members' Singularity properties are inexhorablydrawing everyone together. It was Dancougar who brought them to Dragons'Hive, and it's Zexis who'll now get the benefit of their added firepower.

If only Takeru could share in the joy. He tearfully asks his "mother" whyshe couldn't have given birth to him for real, desperately seeking some wayin which he wouldn't have to fight his brother. Tsubasa gets sick of this ina major hurry and tells Takeru to grow a pair and stop the crying to mommystuff. Kouji tries to come to Takeru's defense, but Takeru's mom agrees...sort of. She tells Takeru to fret as much as he needs to, but to alsoremember that he's a warrior sworn to defend the Earth. He'll have to decidefor himself if he must fight Marg, but whatever he decides he'll always beher son(-ish, but who's counting?) The moment he loses this kindness is themoment all will be lost. Kouji gets his butt moving too, a sly taunt abouthis incomplete training from Tsubasa still ringing in his ears. As he walksoff, Shizuko muses mournfully that perhaps the one thing she can do for herpoor child is to support him with her love. The hardened Tsubasa has to smileruefully at that -- as they say, "Women be weak, yet mothers be strong."Educational that, perhaps pertinent to the way Kouji is about the right ageto be Tsubasa's own son. But let's not go there for now...

Back at Zhul's forward base things are in far sorrier shape. Zhul tellsRose that they lost the battle entirely because she let their hostage escape,and orders her back to Gishin to be executed. She quietly accedes, but Margintervenes and says that the only way he'll be able to capture the Earth iswith his vice-commander's help. Zhul agrees, warning that the next report hereceives better be about their victory. After he hangs up, Marg can't fullyexplain to Rose why he acted to save her, just as he can't understand thestrange sensation he gets when fighting the man who named himself his brother:the man who shares his face. Why are they fighting Earth again anyway? Well,_Zhul_ said it contains hidden dangers and needs to be either conquered orblown up. They why is Mars, a Gishinian, resisting? Things that make yougo "Hmm..."

CHAPTER 32. Later, Buddy

Strange times make for strange bedfellows, and Elgan's shacked up with somevery strange individuals indeed: Stinger and Corwen look like just aboutanything apart from baseline humans. That makes it more interesting thatthey'll be the ones presenting some results about Invader research at nextweek's exobiology hoe-down. The odd due hope that mankind will gain a betterunderstanding of their enemy, and lament the fact that Saotome is unwilling tohelp them. Can't imagine why he'd do that!

As soon as they're out of earshot, the two start snigg*ring about how "thehumans" are so worried about the "Invaders". They're more worried about theBeastmen, who seem so insistent on trying to stem the tide of Getter Rays.Stinger smirks that if the Beastmen insist on stopping their own evolution,they're not worth the trouble of getting rid of. Or put differently, thosebent on killing the Beastmen are the highest priority targets. They're bothagreed: the Spice^WEvolution must Flow!

Speaking of the Beastmen, Lowgenome is rather irate over Zhul's latest antics:nosing around in the Dark Continent and allying himself with the residents ofthe Ruins. He believe he can take on Zhul and friends on his own, but thereal problem are those ten billion (give or take) Monkeys, should they awakenat some point. Lowgenome's dispatched Chimilf for a preemptive strike on thosewith the spiral power already at their disposal, and goes to prepare to battlethose who seek the Earth's power for their own foul ends (that would be Zhul,for those keeping score back home).

While he's doing... whatever it is he's doing, Zexis has been busy runningaround in search of Beastmen to lynch. It sounds pretty harsh until youconsider how much damage and misery they've been spreading, and Kamina ismore than happy to lead the charge on behalf of the glorius Gurren Gang.With children and animals lining up behind his bravado, even Youko has toadmit quietly that the guy is pretty bad-ass. Some of the more experiencedwomenfolk advise her that she'd better bust ass and keep pace with him if shedoesn't want to get left behind. Elchi's learned that the hard way abouther man Jiron, which interests Renton and Eureka immensely -- and Eurekain turn interests Lee Long immensely, though Renton tries to keep the guyfrom scaring her too badly.

The soap opera ends abruptly when Timp shows up, with Viral of all peopletrailing behind! After a bit of tense small-talk we meet the real threat: thehulking Chimilf, one of the Spiral Lord's four generals. He's come to throwdown the gauntlet with Kamina, vowing to kick his ass at dawn tomorrow withhis Dai-Gunzan. No sooner does he and his comrades walk off than Kaminastarts yelling his head off about how he is SO accepting the challenge.

The rest of the team get ready for battle too, strategy and maintenance all inreadiness for whatever teh hell the Dai-Gunzan turns out to be. Kitanangrily warns the other pilots not to underestimate the Beastmen, seeminglydisagreeing with Kamina's stated plan to simply bum-rush the bad guys andbreak through directly. Then again, such tactics are what made Kamina thefirst human to ever successfully steal a Gunmen: he's a trailblazer of sortsfor all those who would follow his footsteps.

And if Kamina is the tip of the spear, Simon's proven himself an able shaftfor it: always help save Kamina's bacon when it matters most. The two area superb team, and Youko tells Simon she's counting on him as much as sheis counting on Kamina. Simon, who's been teased/encouraged to go find agirlfriend among the team's plentiful supply of women, seems like he's gotsomething important to say to Youko, but the timing is all wrong as shewanders off to see where Kamina's gone. Ryouma of all people pops outand tells Simon he'd better get his love declaration off his chest beforetomorrow's bloodshed. Simon of course gets mightily embarassed and runs off,leaving Ryouma to explain to Crow that he's not acting out of idle concern:better to get everything out in the open before a battle which there might beno return from. The Getter team all agree that expressing love, evenunrequited with a partner out of one's league, is better than none at all.

Kamina meanwhile has been gazing at the moon, a sight beautiful enough to beworth coming to the Surface all on its own. He's adamant that the team mustsmash the Beastmen as often as it takes to make them give up their assaults,so all the kids have a safer, happier world to live in. His candor surprisesYouko, who observes with some amazement that he's actually got more than twobrain cells to rub together. He tells her he's counting on her to helpprotect the space behind him, the space where all their friends actuallylive and work. Youko is stirred to kiss him full on the lips, and after amoment of shock he promises her to return the favor tenfold when he gets back.Geef, you have to hope that's not one of those "IF-he-gets-back" bad omen kindof moments...

And of course, Simon saw the whole thing. SOAP OPERATIC!

As the team array for battle, even Zero agrees that Kamina's frontal assaultplan has merit. If nothing else, Kamina's presence brings an ineffablemorale boost to the team, something invaluable against an unknown but deadlyenemy. Simon is going to have a hard time concentrating, but the rest of theteam is uber fired up. They'll need to be: the Dai-Gunzan turns out to be a_battleship_-sized Gunmen. Kamina likes the sight so much he intends to havethe team steal it and use it as the Gurenn Gang's new hideout. Unbelievablyhe's cooked up some kind of plan with Lee Long, which will begin once theyimmobilize the thing. Let the games begin!

 There are a few truths in this world, and this is one of them: wherever there's fighting, the Invaders can't be far behind. Interestingly the Invaders are totally fixated on the humans (which might include Timp if he's not careful), and given their propensity for stabbing fleeing foes in the back the team's only option is to go forward with all available violence. It's not all bad news though: Lee Long has figured out how the team might steal the Daigunzan. When the Gurren Lagann combines, what's actually happening is that the Lagann is taking over the Gurren's systems. This is nifty, and will be even niftier if it can repeat the feat with the Daigunzan. Which in turn depends on Simon's spiritual fortitude...

 Viral can't do much to stem the tide, and Chimilf sends him home before he can get himself killed. Timp meanwhile is practicing thespianical skills that the average footballer [that's Soccer to you Yanks] might envy, buggering off before his airbags can even deploy.

 Simon can't help but be daunted by the task before him, even when the rest of the team immobilize the supposedly mobile fortress. Even he doesn't know what his mental block is, but fortunately for him he's got a staunch ally in Kamina. The Gurren Gang leader will gladly smack some sense into him any time he finds himself sucking it up, and he orders Simon to believe in the self that Kamina believes in. Umm.

 Bad news emerges from the Daigunzan: Chimilf isn't going to just hand the damn thing over without a fight. Kamina takes the brunt of it, but after a couple anxious moments he rushes over and, once again, smacks sense into the anxious Simon. Chimilf wants his battleship back, but that ain't happening as long as Gurren Lagann has anything to say about it. Simon now grasps the true Power of the Drill, and Chimilf gets his pork ass broiled into some seriously unhealthy bacon.

One. Small. Point. Kamina was apparently less okay than he let on...

CHAPTER 33. Life That Pierces the Heavens

Making the Daigunzan habitable is a long task, all the grimmer for the abruptloss of the Gurren Gang's bombastic leader. Everyone on the team will have todeal with it in their own way, and that means leaving Simon alone with hisgrief for now. Even the CBs are humbled by the fruits of war, and Lockontells Kira that if someone had to be punished, he'd rather it have been Lockonhimself. Not, as he tells Suzaku, that he regrets what he's done -- heexpects to be judged and judged harshly, but preferably _after_ he's finishedhis work. Kira asks him not to lay down his life prematurely: he may yet geta chance to make ammends, and there's always someone who cries over the lossof another. Zero knows that a similar fate awaits him, though outwardly hemerely recommends that the Black Knights, and Suzaku, join the rest of Zexisin mourning their fallen comrade.

Among those hit hardest is Felt -- all the bad memories of her parents' deathsresonate for her. She particularly doesn't want to lose Lockon in the sameway, and in an amazing moment of tenderness he tells her to call him by hisreal name: Neil Dilandy. Sharing this secret with her will be proof of hisvow to live through this mess.

The thought of their own mortality finally drives the Nova team to open up toeach other. Johnny starts with his biggest reason for joining the team in thefirst place: two of its female members are exactly his type. That's right,equal 3P actionz with Aoi and Kurara. As for why Kamon voluntarily chose alife of homelessness, he muses that he was seeking some sense of being alive --of sharing in the fundamental cycle of foraging for food, eating it, andsleeping as the beasts of the field do. Fulfilling his soul required somethingelse though, and that's where Dancougar came in: it felt like a challenge tohim from the world at large. Aoi's motives are similar: for all thecameraderie and pleasure she found in modeling and racing, it is Dancougar thatpromises to set her aflame, to take her to heights she couldn't reach on herown. Kurara plays coy: telling the entire team to survive if they want to hearher story later.

Sumeragi has been overhearing this a bit, and complements them on becoming abit more like an actual team. Kurara sniffs that they're doing far better thanthe Gundam Meisters, and Sumeragi readily agrees. She does pass along a littlesomething she heard from Rue and Seimy: the Nova folks will remain far from atrue team so long as they keep their hearts walled away from each other.Kamina is a pretty good example of what one can accomplish by lettingeverything inside out. In any case, the elusive true commander of Dragons'Hive has invited everyone to a party, and that's not something to be easilyignored.

Holland and Talho expect that their long struggle is nearly at an end, andtheir dreams of fairytale-like bliss nearly at hand. "Holland" is just apseudonym as it turns out: his proper designation -- not his real name -- is350Z. His real name, and his proper future, have been stolen from him as theyhave from all his crew. They are all of them resolved to go through withtheir grand design, and Holland tells his comm officer to get in touch with"him" -- all that remains now is deciding when to pull the trigger.

The party is, as expected, a time for conflicted emotions. Harry says it bestto Rolan: grief is fine, so long as one does not drown in it. That's a bit ofwisdom from Queen Diana that Rolan would do well to ponder. Alto isn't feelingthe love and is about to trudge off until the evening's entertainment isrevealed: Sheryl and Ranka! That sounds great until it turns out they weren'ttold the reason for the party -- it will be a test of their professionalismto keep their sudden grief at Kamina's loss under wraps. Hopefully theirnew acquaintance and fellow idol Eiyda, tonight's opening act. She's cute butsurprisingly savvy, and Sheryl tells Ranka she'll need her sh*t together tonot get upstaged. As the pair head backstage, they run into a possee of folksthey don't recognize and who are very much fans of their singing. BesidesSandman and Fudou, there's Diana and Lacus! Lacus loves the girls' blend ofstrength and joy, and tells Fudou that she doesn't want to meet her Zeuthcomrades until she finds other songs to sing besides her former songs of war.Diana too intends to use this time apart from her comrades to consider theworld as one of its mere residents, instead of as the Queen of the Moon.Sandman will help them with his friends in this world, the Fog Sweeper, as theyall battle the forces of darkness in their own ways.

Away from the buffet and commotion downstairs, the Nova team finally meet thefounder of Dragons' Hive: F.S. F.S. notes that the Nova team seems to behaving trouble fighting the R-Daigun, a rival Dancougar type known as aVariable Beast Machine. He's actually happy that the R-Daigun's shown up, as abenchmark for whether the Nova can be considered a "real" Dancougar or not.F.S. admits that the Final Dancougar is part of his grand plan to fend off"enemies to come", but he won't say what that plan or those enemies arespecifically. He's invited the team here for now because he's interested inthem -- they're somehow different than the previous Dancougar team's he'shired. What he will tell them is that Dancougars have to become arbitrarilystrong. Johnny asks F.S. where the term "Dancougar" comes from, and F.S.smiles and says it's the name of a divine warrior who transcended both man andbeast. That warrior even had a catchphrase: "Your Ass is Mine!" or some suchthat F.S. surprisingly repeats for the team. After the invigorated memberswalk off, WILL asks F.S. -- that is, Fog Sweeper -- if these are the ones he'spinned his hopes on. They are, and with the little surprise WILL's prepared,surely Nova will beat the Daigun and truly become a Dancougar. WILL cautionsthat such optimistic plans are a bad habit of humanity but F.S. says that thatbad habit has seemingly served mankind pretty well so far..

Back at the party, some Area Eleven folks happen to be on hand for politicalreasons: Louise (and her escort Shoji) and Rilina. Setsuna chats with thembriefly without incient, and later tells Hiiro that Rilina's here. He tellsSetsuna that Rilina dwells in a different world from him, and there's noreason for him to seek her out. Setsuna then asks if Hiiro was ever scaredto self-destruct, and after regarding him a moment Hiiro observes that Setsunaseems to be afraid to die without fulfilling his mission.

Johnny is there too, furiously pondering who F.S. really is and how (andwhere) he got the technology to put Dancougar together. His reverie isbroken by Eiyda, who's a sort of Internet stalker of his after his ad agencywas involved with stealing a commercial Eiyda was supposed to star in.She means to press her romance, and Johnny isn't opposed to the prospect...Unfortunately, there's a bit of an interruption: a Gundam is headed towardsthe party site. It's the Trinities, and when they blast the building Eiydadoes not fare well...

Back at the Daigunzan, a large gathering of hotshot Gunmen pilots havegathered in honor of Kamina. Lee Long says that the Daigunzan's new name willbe the Daigurren, at Youko's insistence. The problem remains Simon, whohasn't yet come out of his room. Youko isn't rushing to try to cheer him up,admitting that she's fully occupied with keeping her own spirits fromcollapsing. After all, the last thing Kamina told her is that he'd return herkiss tenfold -- she's now left with a hole ten times wider in her heart.Just then, word comes in that Simon has boarded the Lagann and departed -- notso safe given all the Beastmen nearby.

Simon has gone nearly mad with grief and with his determination to make up forKamina's loss. He initially trashes a few Beastmen, but then his Laganngrinds to a halt. Seeing no immediate danger, he dismounts and goes toinvestigate a box that the Beastmen dropped. Inside it is... a cheerful girl!She prances around barefoot, reveling in the sensation of being Outside, andthen quizzically asks why Simon is just like her. He lacks all the fur andfangs and whatnot, and she seemingly has never heard the term "human" before.He struggles to explain that are other humans out here like him (but not_exactly_ like him, which would be weird). Soon more Beastmen arrive andSimon heards them into the Lagann, which still sits immobile. He tells Niato run and hide while he holds the enemy Gunmen off, though how he means todo this Lagann has "forsaken"(?) him remains to be seen. He doesn't want tosee anyone else die, and if someone MUST die, he wants it to be... himhimself, as Nia makes him realize. She smiles and tells him he should runaway if he's afraid: dying is _bad_. He tries to pretend he's not afraid, butshe tells him that lying is bad too.

Kitan and Youko show up at this point, as do a bunch more Beastmen. Niasuddenly gets on the radio and orders them all to withdraw, in the name ofthe Spiral King Lowgenome's First Princess. The Beastmen all withdraw, andthe team now have a lot more to think about.

Meanwhile, Ragna has given Johan quite a talking to about the Trinities'attack on that party. Mihael doesn't give a sh*t: he feels proud of dealingdamage to a rival coroporation and for taking Zexis' warpower down a notch ortwo. And besides, it was Neina who started shooting like a goddamn lunatic.Ragna better not have been bitching about civilian casualties or whatnot,right? Right, but there's a _non_-civilian casualty: the R-Daigun's pilot.She's only been lightly wounded and will still participate in the next mission,which Mihael and Neina think is a major shame -- they're quite convinced theycan do their job on their own. In any event, the team are being sent tostrike the Overflags base next, and Neina wants to go level the place beforethe R-Daigun can even make it to the battlefield.

Simon's arrived back at Daigurren with his peculiar guest, who's been lockedup till the team can figure out what to do with her. The party guests arealso back and draped all over sickbay. Luckily no one got killed, but theshock to Simon is almost as bad: Lagann doesn't seem interested in helpingsomeone who lacks the will to live. With no where else useful to go, Simongoes to chat with Nia some more. She's learned a lot from the othercrewmembers about what harm her father's wreaked on the humans, but doubts hewould do so without a reason. Simon of course hates Lowgenome's guts, butwhen Nia asks if he hates her too he says he's got no f*cking idea. So,why's he fighting again? He _did_ fight because Kamina, who believed in him,was there. And just who is this "Kamina"?

A dude who lost his life fighting Lowgenome's people, which pretty muchexplains why people might dislike Nia. Simon says that nobody hates her...and come to think of it "hatred" never seemed to drive Kamina either. Kaminawas the sort to laugh even under the direst of circ*mstances. He was likethis... BOTTOMLESS IDIOT, Youko grouses not unkindly, and asks Simon toregale her too with more stories about Kamina. Simon relates an incidentwhere the people of his village once tried to dig to the surface, only to betrapped in an earthquake. He was terrified that he'd die buried alive justlike his parents, but Kamina was the one who kept encouraging everybody, theone who stopped Simon's hands from shaking. It was then when Simon heard thevoice of the soil and rock speak to him, telling him to grasp this warm stoneand make his way out.

Simon says that he's always been powerless without Kamina, but Nia points outthat he rescued her quite well on his own. Why is he so obsessessed withtaking Kamina's place? He tells her that she doesn't know what Kamina waslike, but she counters that Simon can't count on what Kamina _was_ like either. Youko huffs that Nia couldn't possibly understand what Simon's goingthrough with no idea of what Kamina was like, and Nia rightly asks why not.Simon's far from incapable, but so long as he remains fixated on someonenow departed... Youko yells at Nia to knock off the lecture, especially givenit was her fther's men who cost Kamina his life in the first place. Cost..._Youko_ Kamina's life, if we're honest. Just then word comes in of Beastmenon the inbounds, and as the Daigurren can't move yet Zexis' forces mean tointercept them some distance away. Simon still looks like hell, and he stillis trying to fill Kamina's shoes as he trudges toward the hangar...

When Zexis sends in reinforcements, the scope of the party injuries is clear:the team is substantially short on warm bodies. HOT bodies, on the otherhand, are overflowing from a Nova team itching to measure up to F.S.'expectations. Johnny in particular wants to get this over fast so he can gocheck in on Eiyda. All eyes are on Simon, seemingly zombified by hisunreasoning determination to fill Kamina's pointy sunglasses -- even good newsabout the low number of enemies actually makes him sink deeper into his funk.Watching him, Eureka wonders aloud why people go on living while shoulderingsuch debilitating sadness.

Everyone gets worried when a Quake occurs, letting in a large batch of Emerges. Wait, they look an awful lot like the ferocious balloon animals thatEureka is descended from [that's the Coralians, for those keeping score athome], and if so, what's the deal with this world having a Eureka given howZeuth's Eureka supposedly put paid to all that pan-dimensional mess a whileago. The Beastmen wisely leave the Emerges alone, and Eureka somehow knowsthat the Emerges are somehow seeking to understand the meaning of sorrow.Talho frantically calls to Holland, who agrees that the Emerges must not beallowed to get their hands on "it".

 [By the way, if you have 40+ kills for Suzaku, you'll get a Yggdrasil Drive at the end of this battle. This is easier if you've been usig Suborder optimally, but you should still be able to make up some amount of deficit during the battle itself.]

 At a particular juncture in the battle, Holland orders Renton to follow him back to the Gekko. Renton understandably wants to know what's going on, and Eureka says it's all her fault for not being human. That's news to him, given how they like grew up together and all, but Eureka at long last tells him the truth. The reason the military took her away and treated her as a top secret is that she's actually a spy robot sent by the Emerge to study humans. It's probably her attempt to understand Simon's sorrow that made the Emerge react and show up. Renton isn't sure he believes all this, and Eureka thanks him for always treating her like a regular girl.

 Holland intervenes at this point, having known Eureka's true nature all along. Renton demands to know why Holland stole her from the military, and Holland has a question for Renton in turn before answering: how old does Renton think Holland is? Renton retorts that he's got no f*cking clue, and Holland tells him that he's all of seventeen... just like everyone else on the Gekko. They are all children of Neverland -- yeah, the one from Peter Pan lore. Holland says that the Tragedy of Dohar eight years ago was caused by humans trying to use the Emerge's power to produce artificial Quakes. In that case, another humanoid Emerge spy robot was the focus, and the ship headed for the Emerge was packed with children like Holland. The only adults were a young soldier and a peach-haired girl, who were hugging each other as though they knew their end was nigh.

 Holland and the others passed out in a burst of rainbow-colored light, regaining consciousness as their ship disintegrated around them. The adults who sent them on this mission probably suspected that the orphan children wouldn't be missed, but what they didn't suspect is what Holland's people saw at the other end of the tunnel: a blue-green planet whose moon bore some kind of inscription. They realized that that's the world where they belonged, and for that if nothing else Holland is grateful to Renton's parents, employees at the Warusawa lab where the experiment took place. Apparently they discovered the technology that powered all this from an old fairytale: the Ageha Myth.

 The kids were the only ones dragged back to this world when the experiment ended, and the military scientists discovered that they were all aging at triple the normal human rate. Holland believes that this is due to being in this world, and is bound and determined to leave lest the early grave he's been consigned to get even earlier. Okay, got all that -- so how's Eureka fit in?

 The theory goes that the Emerge have the ability to manipulate dimensions, but can't initiate the process on their own. On this theory, the Ageha Myth was penned by them as a sort of trigger mechanism, and Holland thinks he can use what they've learned, plus Eureka, to remake this world into one where he can actually survive. This pisses Renton off something fierce: what makes Holland think anyone has the right to remake the world for their own personal benefit?! Wouldn't using Eureka like that lower Holland to the same level the adults he hates so much inhabit?

 Holland yells at him to shut up, adding a punch for good measure. Renton is not cowed in the slightest, yelling right back that Holland can go f*ck his unfair self if that's how he insists on making his point. Holland growls that it's not just Eureka who he means to use: it's Renton too! Eureka springs into action and grabs Holland, yelling at Renton to escape while he still can and ordering Nirvash to _take_ him when Renton hesitates.

 Eureka radios(?) in to Renton, thanking him for all he's done and apologizing again for mixing him up in her problems. She claims to have no regrets left, though she's reluctant to fulfill her proper mission. If she lets Holland and the others use her as they want to, she won't have to make the decision. Renton is furious at her "self-satisfaction", demanding to know if she ever stopped to consider his feelings. The Gekko flies off with Eureka, and Nirvash refuses to let Renton follow. Jeffrey orders his crew to recover Renton, and the rest of Zexis can only wonder what the hell is going on.

 Meanwhile, who should show up but the R-Daigun. The Trinities are nowhere to be seen, and it seems the R-Daigun's pilot is determined to settle the score with the Nova. She insists that it will be her who saves the world, though how defeating Nova would achieve that is far from clear.

 The R-Daigun is not easily cowed by the D Team's newfound bravado. Its pilot fires back, damaging the Nova's generator and starting it running amok. The other Zexis folks urge them to break their combination lest they get themselves killed, but the D Team are adamant that they're still very much alive and very much committed to fighting for their own sake. None of them want to lose to the R-Daigun, and the Final Dancougar appears and tells them to prove it! Best believe that! The R-Daigun's pilot has no choice but to retreat in a huff, leaving the Nova pilots reeling from the heat of a new sensation they feel welling up from within.

 Shinobu tells them that this is the power of "instinct", the fundamental force behind all life. He tells Aoi and her teammates to master this new power they've discovered, and prove they're using their generator to the utmost via God Beast Mode. Saying he'll report all he's seen to F.S., Shinobu leaves his "underclassmen" to their battle. As more Emerges join the fray, the question turns to Simon: can he overcome the wall in front of him as the D Team has done?

 Simon mutters that he simply can't become Kamina, and Nia says that that's just fine! He doesn't have to be anyone but himself, the self that managed to save her. He needn't try to make up for Kamina's absence all alone: he's got a whole team to help with that. Simon needs to remember what Kamina taught him: to believe in the self that Kamina believed in. Right then! Both Simon and Daigurren are now online, and Simon vows that he will keep drilling through whatever wall stands before him until the very end!

Net result: Simon grows a pair (and becomes the Gurren Gang's new leader) andthe D-Team starts acting like the A-Team. I love it when a flan comestogether. So does Shinobu, who reports Nova's exploits to F.S. after thebattle finishes. Of course, Nova has lots of work to do before living up totheir true potential, but they've taken a very important step forward. What'smore, WILL has had this planned all along: F.S. knows very well that WILLdeliberately leaked the plans for the R-Daigun. They've been working togetherquite a while, after all, and although F.S. doesn't agree with everything WILLhas planned, they both _do_ agree that Nova and the R-Daigun must continuefighting until one of them surpasses beast, man and even God himself.

Elsewhere, Holland is hearing it from Hap of all people for letting Rentonslip through his fingers. Why not just drug the damn kid and see theirplan to fruition? Holland protests that he didn't want to force himself uponanoother kid, and is sure that he can still get Renton back with a littlehelp from one of his friends. He assures his shipmates that his resolve isstill firm as ever, and says that anyone not on the same page can leave now.OH AND GUESS WHAT, they're in league with Eim, who ordered them to bail on thelast battle in the most disruptive way possible. In return, Eim promisesto put in motion the recreation of their little fairytale...

CHAPTER 34. [Route Split]

Renton briefs the team on what Holland told him, and unsurpisingly the teamfind it tough to believe that an old myth holds the key to artificial quakes.What is obvious is that the mess at Warusawa lab has been kept under thestrictest of secrecy, and even Veda has little information. It's agreed thatthe Gekkostate folks can be left free for now, as presumably they'll need tocome (try to) get Renton sooner or later to complete their plan. Rentonactually wanted to go off alone to find the Gekkostate first, but yielded tothe argument that he was better off sticking with Zexis and relyign on Elgan'sinformation services. As it's likely Elgan knew something about theGekkostate's scheme -- perhaps including them into Zexis to keep an eye onthem -- the commanders plan to insist that he do the dirty work of trackingthe Gekkostate down.

The Imperium meanwhile continue their rampage of destruction unabated: theycan now claim eleven nations as casualties. The Trinities also remain activein the shadow of this hideous parade, emboldened enough to even skirmish withBritannia's Overflags base (this time, for negligible damage). Sumeragiannounces that the CBs are going to take a bit of a sabbatical from Zexis tohunt down their cousins, and try to persuade them to stop their militaryinterventions so the world can get busy fighting the Imperium. She'll have abackup plan too, in case persuasion fails.

In the spirit of solving one's own problems, Zero decides to take the BlackKnights back to Area Eleven, and the rest of the team rapidly draw up plans fora three-way split. Suzaku will be going back with Zero, though everyoneexpects him to return to the Britannian army once he gets there. Zero andSumeragi both hope he can be persuaded to reconsider, as his combat skillstrump most strategems and his mere existence is of value in uniting thehearts of the Japanese. Crow as usual will get to choose for himself.

 [For Japan, go to 34J. To hang with the CBs, go to 34C. To return to Area Eleven, go to 34E.]

In any case Esther and Traia do their best to get Crow pumped up for the nextphase of his assignment, heavily indebted though he is. He's actuallygetting paid a decent amount for this stint, though Traia coyly rounds offthe payout and then cuts off the call before explaining why.

Now, the Zexis pilots are made of stern stuff, but not so civilians likeShoji. He's been laid up in a hospital bed ever since the attack on theparty, and while he's been out Louise has returned to Spain on account of herparents' death. It was arranged for her medical care to take place there,and an agonized Shoji cries out for his sister or anyone else to explain whythe CBs' Gundams have started attacking non-combattants.

CHAPTER 34J. The Father Inside One's Memories

For the daughter of the Gurren Gang's arch-enemy, Nia cuts a superblynonthreatening (and endearingly naive) figure. Kitan is doing his best to"question" her amidst the hurly-burly of the mess hall, but it seems he'sanswering more questions than he's asking. If Zero and Sumeragi combinedcouldn't get anything useful out of her, there's little hope for any of theother team members (as Julie knows all too well). The team tries to imaginewhat the lord of the Beastmen might be like, eventually concluding that hemust, like Nia, at least look human. Many on the team have fathers formidablein their own ways, with Crow possibly the only product of a losing family.That's not to say that there aren't family issues to go around though: manyon the team have had to come to terms with battling their fathers' killers,as Takeru himself must before long.

The talk of family has Ibuki in a bit of a funk, and as she stalks off Akagimakes the lamest attempt in history to cover for her. Fortunately for himthe team gets distracted by a little surprise waiting for them in Japan...which turns out to be a mountain of expense reports and other paperwork.While all that's being hammered out, Crow takes part in a little cash-for-infoswap with Domeki, that mad scientist girl with glasses. Who, as it happens,also has business with Ibuki.

Domeki slyly fills Ibuki in on the fact that she's following in Ibuki'sfather's footsteps research-wise. Domeki is a self-proclaimed genius, andthe Heterodynes are the first subject she's ever encountered she couldn'tcomprehend on sight -- this of course will _not_ do. She asks Ibuki whyshe changed her surname, and Ibuki says that her mother remarried after herfather's death. Her father actually named the unit of energy in FractalKnot theory the "Breath", after the translation of Ibuki's name. Ibuki admitsto having something of a father complex, and is piloting Dai Guard in partto get revenge for his death. If only the world had been quicker to believehis results, maybe he woudln't have felt compelled to run the experiment thatcost him his life. Maybe more of the world's people could have been saved.

Domeki finds Ibuki's take on her father rather funny, and asks if she ever readhis famous book. After considerable jargon, she explains that her father, theconsummate scientist, must have been an inveterate problem solver. And to aninveterate problem solver, the Heterodynes would not have represented an enemyso much as the final piece in the puzzle he was trying to construct with histheory: seeing them in person would have been the ultimate validation. Ibukiprotests that her father was certainly trying to protect mankind, but Domekicounters that all scientists are children at heart.

As proof, she shows Ibuki footage of the actual incident when the Heterodynesappeared. Pictured is her father, grinning like a kid who just got 100% on amath test. For him, the Heterodynes were nothing more and nothing less thana fascinating object to study. He was _not_ a hero, and Ibuki's known itdamn well ever since reading his book. Domeki tells Ibuki that she's beenrepressing that knowledge ever since, blaming the Heterodynes for everythingthat's wrong with the world. The alternative, accepting the truth, wouldalso mean knocking her father off the pedestal she'd built inside for him.

Despite all the incisive lunacy, Domeki knows when to stop pushing. As shegoes to fetch her a cup of coffee though, she does warn that unless Ibuki canrid herself of her hangups, she'll never truly wear the "Momoi" surname at all.No sooner does Domeki walk off than Eim shows up! He tells Ibuki that herfather was indeed a hero, and it's her father's work that led him to hisability to produce Quakes. That is, it's her father's fault that the Lord ofDestruction is here. Ibuki's cries of despair bring Crow and her teammatesrunning, and Crow demands to know what Eim's trying to accomplish bytraumatizing Ibuki. OF COURSE, knocking Crow himself for a loop!

When the Daigurren shows up, Nia's been installed on the bridge as a full-fledged member of the Gurren Gang. Trider's updates have finished too withsome help from Lee Long, and that's a good thing because Dai Guard doesn't seemto be in any hurry to show up. Kokubougar will have to help pick up the slackas Ibuki works through her demoralization, just like Eim drew it up. He wantsto see what Crow looks like when he decides death is preferable to watchinghis friends get f*cked over, and has even brought the newly-embittered Margretto help. Eim cautions that her heart is black and full of hate, so instead ofletting her rule the universe with it, Crow vows to simply kick her ass, andhard.

 Ibuki does get her sh*t together and prevails upon her teammates to launch, but Eim's got a nasty surprise waiting for her: the same kind of Heterodyne that killed her father 12 years ago. Ibuki loses all track of the little chat she and Domeki just had, and vows to destroy the thing and let her father rest in peace. Or something.

 When Margret gets ousted, her final words before fleeing are regrets that she couldn't avenge her brother. But who would that be, when her forces only seem to have beasts? The signature Heterodyne offers no words, preferring instead to dish out vicious beatings to anyone unwise enough to get near. That would include Dai Guard, given that Ibuki is all distracted by the thought that her whole war with the Heterodynes will be uesless if she lets herself believe that her father himself wasn't at war with them.

 With Ibuki flailing, Akagi has no choice but to withdraw. Eim is very happy with this debacle, and promises to do the same to every one of Crow's comrades until Crow begs for mercy. Does this guy really think people are that easy to manipulate? If so, he's in for a serious lesson as the 21st Century staff scramble to repair and refurbish their damaged mech.

 The damage to Ibuki's psyche, however, won't yield to legions of mechanics, or well-meaning officemates. Back comes Domeki to talk more facts: even if Eim's claims are true that he turned Ibuki's dad's research to evil ends, it is the USER that's evil, not the research itself. She's proud of herself for showing Ibuki what her father really was, and uncowed when the rest of the team are horrified at her callousness. But that's the psychological stuff.

 The physical stuff comes when Akagi grabs Aoyamai and drags Ibuki back into battle. He tells her that he's not going to pretend to understand what she's going through, but if there's one thing he's certain of it's that she is her own person. Better she fights for her own sake than for her father's, and better yet to fight on behalf of the team and of mankind as a whole. That's what Simon learned, after all. Eim is unthrilled by this turn of events, but Crow and friends tell him no uncertain terms to go f*ck himself if he doesn't like it.

Eim sounds conflicted when his final pawn goes down: even if the scales ofCrow's soul are swaying, the stand supporting them is rock-solid. Somethingto ponder until later. For now, Watta has a final word of wisdom for Ibuki:if her scientist father was anything like his, he'd have had no regrets aboutdying in the midst of his work. Ibuki agrees, and vows to keep up the fightwith Zexis until she discovers a new purpose for her life. She tells Crowthat she's really not all that disappointed about her dad, and to her surprisehe admits he's not that down on his father -- deadbeat though he was -- either.Is that why Crow opted to shoulder his father's debts? No commento!

The love-fest doesn't last long though: word comes in that Ashura has justdeclared war on all of Japan. Ashura's been ordered to commence an all-outattack on Japan in just 24 hours, unless both the Japanese government and Zexisunconditionally surrender. Think that's happening?

CHAPTER 34C. Memorial Debut

Tracking down the Trinities is going to be hard work, since even Veda hasn'tfigured out what they're up to. Sumeragi thinks there's hope though: themarrauding trio seem to have a far more personal agenda than is usual for theCBs. It's as though someone party to the CBs' technology is using the Trinitiesfor his own ends... which is a pretty terrifying thought in fact.

As the Zexis commanders deliberate, Ranka is having issues of her own off inRome. It's eating her up that she's been saved by Alto so many times and yethas never been able to return the favor. Her new companion Eiyda tells her tocheer up -- she is after all on the brink of becoming the world's top idol starwith the release of Bird-Human. After all, how can an idol star lifteveryone's dreams if she herself is weighed down? Eiyda does confide to Rankathat she's got her own lovelorn moments, but she's not going to say who it isshe loves lest it cause some major scandal.

When her date shows up, no further words are needed: it's Johnny, with Altoin tow. Eiyda's figured out who it is Ranka loves, and had Johnny drag himout here for a date of his own. NOT THAT HE AND RANKA ARE DATING, we hastento add. Ranka starts to mope and apologize, but Alto tells her she needn't.He's seen an advance copy of Bird-Human, and assures her that while her actingcould be better, the emotional content was spot-on. The theme song rocked too,but that won't be Ranka's debut single.

Before she can say what will, a fellow member of the Saotome acting clanappears: Yajirou. This is clearly an awkward reunion for Alto, and it getsworse when Yajirou tries to insist that Alto will be an actor for life,piloting-play aside. He adds that their teacher Ranzou is in poor health, andtells Alto to stop by if he can bring himself under control enough. Yajiroustrolls off, leaving a fuming Alto to answer a call from Michelle: Sheryl needsa bodyguard. Is that going to kibosh his "date" with Ranka?

Yup, but at least it's for a good reason: Sheryl is still concerned about hisemotional wellbeing. She manages to both encourage him and remind him thatthere is at least one person who will really suffer if he gets himself killed(at least two in fact, between Ranka and herself). He's supposed to take herto the Galia base so she can give a "comfort" concert, though as she walks withhim toward their mech she seems to suffer a moment of dizziness...

The Galia base has a considerable Frontier army presence as part of thefleet's cooperation with the UN, most notably the infamous 33rd Marine corps.This is mostly made up of Zentraedi, and Klan scowls that they're just thesort of ruffians who'd request a "comfort" event. She explains that she andNene hail from a part of the Zentraedi empire that readily joined forces withmankind after the First Interstellar War. However, other parts of theZentraedi treated the collaboration like a forced occupation, and the 33rdturns out to be an ineffectual force comprised of members from both factions.In fact, the whole crew probably demanded the concert under threat of justquitting wholesale. What, precisely, was the Frontier government thinkingby sending such a band of misfits to the Earth? And does it have anything todo with the mess in Limonecia, which may have used stolen Fold tech?

One thing Ozuma won't be checking out is Ranka's new movie, including as itdoes Ranka's big kiss scene. Several of the pilots know how he feels, andthe banter quickly turns to Ozuma's relationship with Cathy. Kei has onehell of a nose for women, and correctly determines that Cathy and Ozuma are_former_ lovers. And there's nothing better, in Kei's view, than romanticdrama on the bridge! The real question is how Alto's love polygon... thing...will pan out. How's it going in Galia?

Off to a good start, it seems. Major Ogotai thanks Alto for bringing escortingthe "comfort" folks, and hopes that the concert will get his men to shut upfor a while. Some of his malcontents have openly challenged him to defeatthem with the power of the Protoculture, that is, music -- which is the realreason for this concert. Ogotai sighs and says that most of his men were dulyimpressed with their direct infusion of Earth's culture, but the rise of theImperium has stirred their old warlike instincts.

As Sheryl is being introduced to the troops (including an unimpressed Temjin),she once again feels dizzy and complains to Grace of a sudden headache. Shecollapses at the worst possible time, and led by Temjin some of the Zentraedistart to riot. Alto and the other humans are quickly taken hostage...

The demand a ship from the Frontier fleet, and as the Zexis pilots digest thenews they all agree that the timing was too perfect: there has to be somekind of mole behind Sheryl's (im)perfectly timed collapse. The problem for nowis how to end the crisis, and a solution comes from a very unlikely source:Ranka! She's heard Alto so many times that it's better to run headlong intoone's problems than to sit and regret, and has finally found a possible way ofpaying Alto back for all he's done for her.

It turns out Sheryl's been in bad shape for several days, but has quietlyinsisted on trying to go on singing. Alto furiously tells her that it's partof her job as a pro to look out for herself, and for once Sheryl can do nothingbut feebly agree. She says that she has nothing _but_ singing, just like Altohas nothing but his flying. Fine then: time for Alto to do some of thatflying, while Grace watches Sheryl to make sure she doesn't try anythingstupid.

Ogotai demands to know what Temjin and friends want with a spaceship, andTemjin slyly says that he wants a way to satisfy his boiling Zentraedi blood.A way like joining the Imperium folks, for instance. He preaches to his menthat partaking of the Imperium's orgy of theft and bloodshed will helprestore the glory the Miclones [the humans, that is] stole from the Zentraedi.His men in a frenzy, he smirks to Ogotai that the "producer" should besatisfied now. It seems Grace is the mole in league with him, and has lethim know in advance that Alto is coming. That sucks for Alto, but he's stillgot to try to face down these goons.

 Alto is up to the task of downing a few of the rebels, but he's certainly in no shape to take them _all_ on. Temjin mockingly recommends he try singing -- maybe that would work! Well why the hell not, especially when Alto has a little backup in the form of Ranka, special delivery from Michelle? Lo and behold, the better half of the rebels throw down their arms at once and join the audience for this impromptu concert, a repeat of the legendary Lynn Minmei for all to see. Even Ozuma has to hand it to his little sister for suddenly becoming a full-grown woman, just as Bobby figured she would.

 Faced with the prospect of his men defecting to watch the birth of a new legendary idol star, Temjin reminds them why he's known as the Ally-Killer. Anyone who tries to flee will have to deal with him first. Seeing Temjin won't surrender, the rest of the team wades in and leaves Michelle to guard Ranka's concert.

 Temjin maintains that his actions are all his blood's fault, and that he was Born This Way. He thinks space isn't big enough for both humans and Zentraedi, which is pretty foolish if you think about just how big space is. Doubly foolish when it appears that he doesn't have his ejection seat turned on...

After the rebels all surrender, Alto flies over to Ranka. He's angry withworry for how dangerous it is to come onto the battlefield sans mech, butRanka happily tells him that that was the only way for everyone to see her.She's glad he heard her song, and Michelle tells Alto with a smirk toconsider just how much guts Ranka displayed by insisting on throwing thisimpromptu concert. Even Sheryl is up out of bed to join Alto in thankingher, and Grace has to hand it to Ranka... for SCREWING UP HER SCRIPT!

Explosions ensue, thanks to -- who else -- the Trinities. It turns out thatthe Zentraedi revolt was supposed to be _theirs_ to suppress, as an odd sortof balance for the mess at Overflags before. It appears that Grace is nowin cahoots with them and Ragna Harvey, and the Trinities don't much likebeing used for other people's plans. Neina decides to take her frustrationsout on Sheryl and Ranka, but before Ozuma or Alto can intervene, the R-Daigunitself swoops in and shields them. Its pilot manages to tell Ranka to run,just before... even more explosions!

This time it's the Vajra, and Tifa can tell that these space monsters' heartsare somehow all united. The Trinities wisely pull out, with promises ofmayhem for the R-Daigun's pilot when they return to base. On the way though,the pilot commends Ranka on her singing -- and Ranka suspects who that pilotmight be...

As the team prepare to take on the Vajra, Alto has to take either Ranka orSheryl on board for safety; the other will ride with Michelle. Quite a quandryin fact; either one will work fine for collecting the hidden item [seekritz!]later. In any case, the Vajra force doesn't stand a chance against this groupof bad-asses. The bigger question is what brought them to the Earth, and howmany more might be waiting in the wings. Is there no way but for mankind tofight them till one of the other is extinct? Off on the sidelines, Gracelaughs with glee: the "Little Queen" has awakened, and from now on the Vajrawill swarm around her. This is, sort of, what Grace had planned, and in thanksshe vows to make the Little Queen's dreams come true: she'll spread her songsthroughout the world.

Alto gets a bit of recreational flying in with whichever girl he chose, afterthe obligatory pep talk of course. Afterwards, the other pilots pester himto find out which girl is actually his main squeeze. He protests vociferouslythat it's _neither_ of them: they and he have just been thrown together bycirc*mstance. If his collosal display of denseness about love is just an act,it's a _damn_ good one.

Just then Luka runs in with big news: someone managed to make a pirate videoof Ranka's concert, and has spread it all over the net. Who had the camera,the Trinities? If so, why'd they put the thing on FrouTube? In any case, thisis about the best free promotion Ranka could hope for for her debut album...

Speaking of Ranka, she's either elated or depressed over Alto's treatment ofher, and has a lot to think about in advane of her formal debut tomorrow. Hermanager isn't 100% thrilled about what he think was a publicity stunt of hers,but tells her it turned out okay and to not sweat it too much. As Ranka getsleft alone, she finds a cute little critter stowed away in her stuff. ...Wesee where THAT is going...

CHAPTER 34E. Captive Heart

Suzaku is dead-set against joining Zero's band of outlaws, and before partingways requests that Zero disband the Black Knights and use his leadership skillsto make Area Eleven easier for Britannia to govern. Zero isn't interested inthat kind of peace, believing instead that change is needed. Alas, cooperationseems like a bare impossibility, though in recognition of their time togetheron Zexis the two agree not to spread each others' secrets too outside forces.Lloyd rather wishes he'd had more opportunity to work with Zexis' mecha, and itstarts to dawn on Suzaku that it's not just Zero he has to fight -- it's allthe other pilots as well. Crow and Katou both tell Suzaku that if he truly hasconviction about his version of the truth, he needs to fight for it to thebest of his ability. Karen is less magnanimous even when Suzaku promises totell the other Ashford Council members that she's out sick: she wants him toget his ass out of here already. As Zero gets briefed on the state of AreaEleven in his absence, it becomes clear that Euphie wasn't able to effect anymajor changes. It also seems that the Black Knights may have a traitor intheir midst...

Suzaku may not be inclined to aid the Black Knights, but Roger Smith is adifferent story. He tells a skeptical Dorothy that the state of the Elevensreminds him of Paradigm City; Dorothy replies archly that he should considerkeeping his "romantic" notions to himself more often. Robert isn't out toforce anyone to share his views, but as he's accepted a contract with Zero hemeans to learn all he can about the state of this Japan's people.

Amazingly, the two run into... Mao! Mao's captivated by Dorothy's emptyheart, saying that she seems almost like a doll, and Roger tells him to desistany and all insults at once. Mao easily reads Roger's thoughts, and tellsthe Negotiator that he has no interest in him -- it's other prey he's after.Mao walks off, leaving Roger uncharacteristically stunned in his wake.

Back at Ashford Academy, Lelouch and Suzaku greet each other warmly, both backfrom their extended absenses. Rilina explains that the Council has been downby several members, most notably the badly injured Louise, now back in Spain.Shoji's gone to Spain too to look in on her, leaving the remaining members toset up for the school festival. Even Milly is busy entertaining a noble fromBritannia -- the rumor is that he and she may be contemplating marriage.

Shirley of course still doesn't remember Lelouch, and the person who madehim Geass away her memories turns out to be unaccounted for. Maybe that hasto do with the Black Knights' difficulties? If so, Lelouch is hoping to lurethe culprit out by openingly returning to school -- and sure enough Mao phoneshim up in short notice. Lelouch isn't interested in chatting with thepsychopath, but when Mao says he wants to discuss Lelouch's sister, Lelouchscowls furiously and rushes off to somewhere private.

As he does, several other Zexis members turn up, assuring Suzaku that theresistance are on vacation today. Instead, they're here as "bodyguards" forKaren, who they've more or less forced back to school. With Zero nowhere to beseen, Suzaku asks the group why they're helping the Black Knights: do theythink Zero's in the right? Duo thinks hard and answers that the ColonialGundams' job is liberating the colonies, necessitating jolting Britannia a bit.Strategically, liberating Area Eleven would set off a chain reaction ofresistance in the other Areas -- and in fact such resistance is alreadybeginning to grow thanks to news of the Black Knights' exploits. Having said all that to explain why Duo's helping Zero, he then adds that he does NOTthink Zero is in the "right". Then again, neither is Britannia... if theterms "right" and "wrong" even apply to combattants in a bona fide war. Crowagrees and tells Suzaku to spend more energy worrying about his own idealsand less about the perceived shortcomings of his opponents. And heck, Suzaku'stime in Zexis showed that he and Zero's approaches could be complementary.

That seems to turn a lightbulb on, and Suzaku runs off to "help a friend",leaving Karen the task of helping set up the school festival. Hiiro, everthe cautious one, hurries off after Suzaku en route to an "errand" he has oncampus. Karen is reluctant to fraternize with Britannians, but Crow tells herto be more honest with herself -- and her hand is forced when Shirley andRilina run into the group. She finally smiles in spite of herself and headsoff to help with the party, leaving Crow pleased at helping her make a littlepeace with her inner demons. He may have an aversion for women, but a) hedoes not have an aversion to his fellow humans, and b) despite Karen'sunavoidable proportions Crow sees Karen as very un-womanly.

Lelouch withdraws to the library to phone Mao back, and learns two things.First, Mao's kidnapped Nanaly and is holding her somewhere on Ashford'scampus (since he can apparently read Lelouch's thoughts). Second, the reasonhe's still alive is Astrageus medical tech: he's used his Geass to convincethe peacekeeping forces that he's a high-ranking deep-cover agent of theirs.Mao tells Lelouch that he should have ordered them to "kill" and not just to"shoot", and says that he's planning to take everything from Lelouch. Notonly must Lelouch find and save his sister within five hours, Mao's alsoordered the peacekeepers to burn the Ghetto to the ground.

What a dilemma: without Zero at the helm the Black Knights could easily lose;yet if Nanaly dies the Black Knights themselves would hold no further meaningfor Lelouch. Enter Suzaku, who guessed from Lelouch's haste that somethingmust have happened to Nanaly. Lelouch tells him that Nanaly's been kidnappedby a lunatic with no direct connections to the Emperor -- though theiridentities could well be spilled to the police if Lelouch tried to involvethem. Suzaku resolves to handle the mess just the two of them, but it willbe at least three when Hiiro (and Rilina) overhear the conversation. Rilinajoins Suzaku in asking for Hiiro's help, and he reluctantly agrees. The soundof running water Lelouch heard on the phone suggests the sewers beneath theschool, so the trio split up and start searching.

Zero shows up late to the battle, furiously telling the troops that he can'ttell them the plan yet except to say that he's attempting to smoke out atraitor. Karen is grateful to Crow for insisting she spend some time withthe Council members, though she still struggles to admit it openly. Hiirowon't be joining the battle at all, off on a civilian rescue mission withZero's approval. Mao phones up Zero to gloat a bit, vowing to kill all ofZero's friends on the battlefield if he insists on entrusting them withNanaly's rescue. C.C. demands to know why Zero didn't mention Mao's return toher, and Zero growls that there's no telling what Mao would do if she enteredthe equation -- Mao might even just kill Nanaly summarily. C.C. accepts this,telling Zero to let her know if there's anything she can do to help.

The Astrageus troops are still mostly convinced that Mao is a real secretagent. They've sortied Proto One again, ordering her to capture Kirikowithout fail. Kiriko for his part is more than happy enough to face her again.As Mao must have come close enough to observe (and direct) the battle, Zeroannounces that smoking the traitor out demands that he not give any orders,except to commence the attack now.

 Hiiro and the others find Nanaly in short order, and Zero rushes to the scene. He asks his teammates to believe in what he'd doing and puts C.C. in charge of the Gawain, and when he reaches Nanaly he finds her tied to a bomb. Every second he spends here is a second where Mao is helping his goons dismantle the Black Knights, so time is _definitely_ of the essence. The bomb is a pendulum, kept in motion by a solenoid counteracting its frictional loss. Hiiro will figure out where the detonator linkage is, and Suzaku will use his exceptional athletic skill to sever the line without disrupting the bomb's motion. Rilina refuses to get to a safe distance, on the theory that her departure would make Mao expect she's gone for help.

 Hiiro tells Lelouch somewhat bemusedly that he doesn't precisely know why he's helping Lelouch out. He recommends Zero get moving and try to track down where the cameras in this room are connected to. Wherever "there" is, will be where Mao's hiding. Opting to believe in his friends, Lelouch rushes off to face Mao. Mao's set up a hideous chess game, which will detonate the bomb if Lelouch loses.

 As the Black Knights struggle to hang on, it seems like everything Lelouch tries fails. As checkmate nears, Lelouch breaks down and begs Mao for mercy, which of course doesn't come. However, the bomb blast doesn't come either, and before Mao knows it Suzaku rushes in and kicks his ass. Seems Mao was concentrating a bit too hard on the game, but even then he should have known to expect an ambush by reading Lelouch's thoughts. AHH, but Lelouch did something sneaky: he Geassed himself to forget the whole operation! Desperate to escape, Mao accuses Suzaku of murdering his own father in the childish hope that it would stop the fighting. Good thing the adults all around lied about it, huh? The whole business about commiting suicide was just a sham, and one thing Mao doesn't want to hear is some post-facto excuse from Suzaku -- especially given how much Suzaku seems to want to die.

 In fact, Suzaku's whole bent for saving people amounts to an ongoing attempt to throw himself into as much danger as possible. What he wants is to be punished, and punished with death -- and here Zero went and bound his heart with that directive to "Live". As Suzaku shudders, Mao worms free and runs off. Now Zero is _pissed_, and he and Hiiro return to the battlefield. Hiiro is beginning to suspect Zero's true identity now, but that will have to wait till later to pursue. Though Mao thinks he can win easily by reading Zero's thoughts, Zero is far from defeatest now.

 Zero's strategies rapidly turn the tide, to Mao's immense consternation. Zero explains to him that unlike the turn-based strategy of chess, a battle is a _realtime_ affair... and Mao is a rank amateur as a front-line commander. Zero will always be at least one step ahead of him, and the harder Mao tries to keep up, the more confusion it will sow in his ranks. Zero doesn't need a Geass to have Mao's heart in the palm of his hand now. He drives Mao into a frenzy by driving the difference in experience, and in the quality of his troops, home at every turn.

 Oh, and remember Kiriko? He's decided to free "Proto One" from her masters by defeating her mech in battle. He at least knocks her out of control, and rushes off toward the crash site with Zero's blessing. As the last of the peacekeepers buy the farm, Kiriko radios in that he's got the red A.T.'s pilot in custody. That just leaves one loose end: Mao.

It is C.C. who reaches him first, finding him nearly incoherent with rageover his inability to defeat Lelouch... and retake her for himself. Instead ofa warm embrace, he gets a gun pointed at his head. C.C. tells him she lovedhim, and tells him to go and wait for her in the "C" World. Lelouch runsover just after she pulls the trigger, and she tells him that now she -- likehim -- has no choice but to move forward. As the two soak in Mao's death,Lelouch ponders what he's learned of Suzaku's past: he and his Geass havestolen from Suzaku the one wish in his life. Lelouch can do nothing to makeammends for now, and despite all that's happened he still wants to bringSuzaku to his side, to help ensure a better world for Nanaly.

Imagine Isukui and Boro's surprise when it turns out that Mao was in facttotally unrelated to their organization! Even worse, they've figured outthat Proto One has fallen into Kiriko's hands, which in their book marksKiriko as a member of Proto One's creators, the PS Army. In panic, theydecide to mobilize the entire peacekeeping force to eliminate the haplessguy...

CHAPTER 35J. Sortie! The Great Mecha-Beast Operation...

Things are bad in Atami, with all tourism slowed to a standstill due toAshura's ongoing barrage. Tsubasa has some secret collaborators with acountermeasure in the works, for which they expect to be compensated inall-they-can-eat food and beverages. Whatever the item is, Tsubasa wants itready in time for the next battle -- and though the item itself may be ready,the launcher for it ain't gonna make it. That means more work for Tsubasa'snearby charges...

Ashura is prepared to stake his/her life on Dr. Hell's next operation, whichinvolves simultaneously attacking the entire Japanese island chain. (S)he'dbetter be, since Dr. Hell will reward failure with a most unpleasantexecution. Dr. Hell orders Ashura to demolish Zexis and capture Mazinger Z,eager to return to more pressing concerns. Data from Zaghoul about theImperium's actions has just arrived, confirming Dr. Hell's worst fears: whatthe Imperium is doing is merely prologue to what will follow. He's got tohasten his own plans, and unless he captures Mazainger Z this planet and itsinhabitants are toast. Does that deserve an exclamation point? Maaaaybe.

The region-wide attack is fully expected by Zexis, who is divvying up itsforces in an attempt to be everywhere at once. Kouji seems somehow out ofsorts, almost too eager for a showdown with the (wo)man who killed hisgrandfather. Gainer senses his wavering and tries to volunteer to shore upKouji's squad, but Shiroda has to keep him busy elsewhere to avoid opening ahole in the defensive strategy -- and Kouji bristles at the notion that heshould somehow need help. He of course will need plenty of help, which is whyShiroda has wisely paired Crow up with Kouji and Sayaka -- Crow assures herthat they'll have Kouji's back if his enthusiasm gets the better of him.

Unfortunately, the plan isn't to target Kouji directly: instead, Ashura isgunning for Sayaka. (S)he takes her hostage as a way to try to force Kouji tosurrender Mazinger without a fight. Kouji surely doesn't want to hand over hisgrandfather's robot, but he also realizes that sacrificing Sayaka, even if hecan eventually beat Ashura, is too steep a price to pay. He ultimately decidesto accept Ashura's invitation to Dr. Hell's hidden base, apologizing to Crowfor his hot-headedness and promising that he isn't going to let this stand.Neither, for that matter, are the rest of Zexis...

For losing his cool, Kouji gets to fester in a cell, taunted by Ashura withvisions of all his comrades already slaughtered on the battlefield. Ashurawill _not_ release Sayaka, and there seems to be no chance of informing Zexisof this base's whereabouts. Fortunately for Kouji, help has already arrivedin the form of, of all people, Boss and friends!

Back on the surface, Crow informs the rest of Zexis what's transpired. To theteam's delight, he thought to put a tracking device on Mazinger, which shouldallow the team to pinpoint Dr. Hell's base's location. As for the hostageproblem, Crow counsels the team to trust that Kouji can make good his escape,and to concentrate on attacking Dr. Hell. If he's to pull this off, as Gainerdid with the Overdevil, he'll have to come to the realization that he's not theonly one fighting.

The strategy session is interrupted by the arrival of a bunch of identicalbeautiful girls, the killer androids known as Gamya-Q. This might be menacingto your average yokel, but Zexis is overflowing with combat veterans withaxes to grind. Evidence rapidly mounts that four Gamya's is NOWHERE NEARenough.

Meanwhile, Ashura has discovered that the Pilder is nearly impossible tocontrol. (S)he stalks off in a huff, vowing to dismantle the damn thing onceDr. Hell officially takes ownership of Mazinger Z. That leaves the fugitivesa clear path to the Pilder, to make good their escape. It seems Tsubasafigured out long ago what Dr. Hell was up to, and sent her three new lackeysahead to infiltrate. They've been doing every menial task in the book inreturn for their meal chits, and they're overjoyed to be out and about again.Kouji's gratitude knows no bounds, and to even accounts Boss wants Kouji tofinish their long-interrupted duel fair and square when they all make it outalive. One of the Gamya-Q's is here to make that harder, but Kouji's oneheck of a shot with the Photon Power laser pistol Tsubasa's sent him.

There's still the problem of escaping from the ocean's depths, and Kouji sendsSayaka on ahead to get help while he holds Ashura's goons off. This is apretty tall order, but Kouji doesn't have to hang on too long till the restof Zexis show up in response to Crow's homing beacon. Gainer springs intoaction, reminding Kouji that he's got teammates to help and using his Overskillto make a pillar of ice for Kouji to climb back to the surface. Waiting forhim there is Tsubasa's little present, a ginormous pair of red wings thatDaigurren physically tosses in Kouji's direction. This is the Jet Scrander,and with it Mazinger Z can _fly_. The three scientists introduce themselvesas longtime research assistants of Juuzou's, and Tsubasa proclaims that withthe Jet Scrander, Mazinger Z is truly unbeatable. Ashura panics and sortiesall the remaining mecha that were assailing Japan, the better for Zexis as ateam to take them all out at once. So get to it!

 What Ashura doesn't realize is just how much he's managed to piss off the world's most dangerous fighting force. The hostages, the would-be assassin robots, the far-flung mayhem... all made even more unforgivable by the fact that even Crow couldn't prevent it. All the more reason that Ashura isn't walking out of this in one piece. Ashura tries to ram Mazinger as a last resort, but in his/her moment of deepest crisis all Ashura's powers fail. Dr. Hell is far from angry though: Ashura had Mazinger long enough to gather plenty of data to fuel a future victory. Ashura gratefully ejects and begins the journey home.

Commendably, Kouji recommends _not_ pursuing Ashura: as a member of Zexis,he knows that his job is to win in battle, not pursue his personal grudges.The next big step to becoming a true bad-ass will be learning to think morestrategically, and he'll have his choice of teachers with folks like Hayatoaround. The first order of business though is a victory banquet, and giventhe proximity to the hot springs all the usual jokes about peeping and washing each others' backs get made. The three scientists even get theirdinner and a "show", which features the ancient Okiku -- quite a beauty in thedays when she and the scientists were young.

The Getter Team aren't doing much celebrating though: Saotome has called themback to base to help test a new powered-up Getter. After all, the Invadersare still, um, invading. Ryouma promises Kouji to continue his training withair-to-air lessons when the team get back. Kouji knows he needs to go ongetting stronger... _though_, he's already plenty strong enough to have laidBoss and his lackeys out at the conclusion of their duel.

Tsubasa is not among the revelers, conferring instead with Professor Yumi.They've examined the remains of the killer androids, and their design wouldbe beyond all but two men in this world -- one of whom died before Tsubasa'seyes. That means that Tsubasa has a bit of an errand to run in Germany oncethings settle down: an errand to see Stroheim Heinrich. What will theties between Tsubasa, Juuzou and Dr. Hell do to influence the battle to come?

Dr. Hell meanwhile has realized that the Super Alloy Z that Juuzou took fromBardos Island is in and of itself half the secret to Mazinger's power, theother half being the Photon Power it emits. He's calculated that Mazingerdidn't require the full quantity of the alloy though, and he declares that hismen's objective must be to recover the rest of it. And they'd better hurry, asthe countdown to the world's destruction has just begun.

Zhul then stops in for a chat, havnig figured out the significance of BardosIsland itself. Zhul names himself as one of "Those Who Know the End", andgives Dr. Hell a phrase to ponder: "Black Wisdom". The day Dr. Hell fathomsits meaning is the day he will be a true equal of Zhuls. This stirs someforgotten memory within Ashura, but Dr. Hell has no idea for now what Zhulmeant. The implication is that it's time to get his ass in gear though,and he means to undertake the dangerous inspection of the deepest unplumbeddepths of this island. It's a task dangerous enough that he's got to suspendthe world invasion for the duration -- though if he can find the "Arm of Zeus"that Juuzou's hidden, the world will easily be his. He's got no other choiceif he wants to consolidate the world before "they" return...

CHAPTER 35C. The Brunt of Malice

Shoji makes it to Louise's bedside, bearing the rings he's worked so long andhard at the pizza store to afford. One problem. Remember how Louise wasso badly injured she had to be shipped home to Spain? It seems she no longerhas a left hand to put an engagement ring onto. After a moment of grief,she pulls herself together and encourages Shoji to return to Area Eleven andresume school: he'll only regret it if his dreams of becoming an astronaut getruined by staying at her bedisde. In return, she asks him to fulfill a dreamof hers...

Elsewhere in Paris, Kinue has phoned Isabelle with her latest report. She'srealized the Gundams that attacked the party were of a different lineage thanthe ones acting as part of Zexis. Kinue means to track down whoever is reallypulling the CBs' strings by following the three rogues, figuring that the ZexisCBs have adapted their mission too much to be of direct use. She's gotten someclues from the Britannian soldiers who tangled with the Gundams, but stillneeds more proof. Isabelle warns her twice not to press her luck, especiallysince her brother's injury may have her not thinking straight. Kinue isprepared to take the risk to figure out if Ragna Harway is really the onebehind the CBs, and get some revenge with her pen for all those like Louise.

Alejandro issues Sarches new orders, having decided that Ragna is suddenlyexpendable. Alejandro avers that Ragna is too wedded to personal profits,and hence unsuitable as a leader of the new world order. So much for the"plus-alpha" effect of having the R-Daigun on the force. But hey, as longas Alejandro keeps the paychecks flowing and keeps Sarches busy killing otherpeople, he'll have no complaint. He describes himself as the lowest form ofprimitive humankind, but Alejandro still has uses for people like him.Sarches has apparently noticed Kinue sniffing around, and Alejandro tells himto handle her "however he sees fit". Yikes.

After he hangs up, Alejandro checks to see if Ribbons will defriend him forrelying on lowlifes like Sarches. Course not: every feudal lord needs huntingdogs now and again. Ribbons is a bit more skeptical about giving Ragna theold heave-ho, but Alejandro says its part of preparations for stage three ofthe master plan -- preparations that the Imperium has forced him toaccelerate. He means to share the quasi-Solar Reactor tech with all theworld's nations in preparation for the Federation's army to crush mankind'scommon enemies. It's only after the chaos is quelled that Alejandro meansto sit in the president's chair; not Schneizer, not Treize... Alejandrohimself. To further assure his position, Alejandro means to use Grace (whoRibbons has enabled him to contact) and the Frontier fleet, despite the bigquestion marks hanging over Grace's head. The final piece of Alejandro'spuzzle will be getting his hands on the CB's Veda system, and Ribbons soundsconfident he can make it happen. Assuming, that is, that Ribbons isn't playinggames of his own...

Tielia's access to Veda has been basically unfettered... until now. Somebody'sbeen tampering with some very high level data, and that can't be good for theCBs' mission. Neither can the mystery surrounding these "Throne"-type Gundams:they still use Solar Reactors, but not the TD Blanket that goes along with it.This means limited runtime, and makes the whole thing more or less worthy ofthe name "pseudo-Solar Reactor". And it's notable that this pseudo-SolarReactor drive system emits radiation toxic to human cells: the pilots arereceiving irreversible, full-body doses with every mission... and everyonenearby is getting the same.

Even if the plans for the Solar Reactor were stolen from Veda (their onlyrepository), it would still take a long time to actually build the drives:hence, there must be a traitor within the CBs. And if Veda has beencompromised, the CBs will have no choice but to carry out their plans withoutit* aid. Crow comes into the meeting at this point with an idea on how totrack down the Trinities. His mech is made for hunting the DBs, and comesequipped with tracer munitions -- one of which Crow successfully planted onthe Trinities' mecha during the last battle.

To the CBs' astonishment, Crow offers up the current location for free...provided they let him and the rest of Zeuth go along to kick some ass. Let itsuffice to say that Crow isn't inclined to go easy on those who mix civiliansup in their warmaking. Sumeragi wants a little time to consider Crow'sproposal, and the stress is enough on Setsuna that he has to go outside forsome air.

In fact, Setsuna goes all the way back to his apartment at Ashford Academy,where he runs into Shoji. Shoji tells him of Louise's sad fate, and by thispoint some of the sci-fi-ists in the audience may have been wondering aboutregeneration therapy. No can do in this case: seems something about therogue Gundams' weaponry has greatly lessened the doctors' ability to treatserious wounds.

...AND as if that wasn't enough bad news for one day, Shoji then receives aphone call, informing him that his sister's been killed. Shoji knows thatshe was following the CBs and that she claims she'd gotten very close in theaftermath of the party. What the f*ck is these "Gundams" problem, anyway:aren't they only supposed to kill the bad people who are making war?!? Setsunashouts out that these aren't real Gundams at all!

The Trinities meanwhile are getting antsy awaiting orders for the nextmission. Neina and Mihael would love a chance to crush the R-Daigun, butJohann is trying to keep some semblance of his wits about him. He'll needthem, as Setsuna arrives and rapidly designates them as an attackable causeof warfare. Neina protests that they're on the same side, but Setsuna yellsback that they aren't Gundams at all! Tielia then joins in the fray, andLockon stops him just long enough to help organize the three of them into amore effective formation. He tells Johann that Sumeragi's orders are to tryto stop the Trinities from fighting if he can, but to value his on-the-spotjudgement above all else. And he judges the Trinities in need of a LOT morelead in their diets!

 Tielia and Setsuna are kicking ass by doing something they never thought they'd do: formation fighting with Lockon. Alarmed, the Trinities try to pull off their big combo attack... only to have Tielia pull out her mech's trump card: he can control all mecha linked to Veda! No wonder Gundam Nadare and its "Trial System" were kept top secret. Tielia is about to execute the three as unsuitable Gundam Meisters, but Nadare's control abruptly cuts out, maybe something to do with that altered data deep within Veda. Johann manages to convince his charges to retreat, telling Lockon that he's got bigger fish to fry than the Trinities.

 He calls Lockon by his real name, adding that he got the personal data straight from Veda. According to Tielia, that should be among the deepest of deep dark secrets. Johann adds that one of Lockon's comrades became a Meister in the name of revenge -- a former anti-Kursis Union guerilla named Solan Ibrahim. That would be... Setsuna! This is awkward, as that group of guerillas are the ones who killed Lockon's family. As Lockon demands to know if this is true, the Trinities bugger off safely.

 Setsuna refuses to answer Lockon's question, and he gets a reprieve of sorts in the form of a batallion of mobile suits from the PMC Trust. Setsuna recognizes Sarches' mech, and Sarches is spoiling for a chance to pay Setsuna back for the previous fiasco. Lockon warns Setsuna that he expects an answer after this battle, and will shoot Setsuna from behind if he attempts to flee.

 The CBs are in a "state" when the rest of the team arrives, and all they can do is help fend off the PMC forces for now. Sarches is smart enough to recognize when he's outgunned, and intends to bug out as soon as things go south for him. Even so, he barely escapes with enough power to keep his original mission -- which seems to be pursuing the Trinities -- on track.

With the enemies gone, Lockon turns to his grim discussion with Setsuna, which he warns may result in his leaving Zexis and indeed the CBs entirely. That sounds dire, but Sumeragi tells the rest of the team to let him andSetsuna have it out. Lockon asks Allelujah and Tielia to be witnesses, andtells Crow that he may have to take his place as a CB depending on how thisall turns out.

After Setsuna confirms that he was indeed the boy guerilla in the KPSA, Lockontells the tale of his parents' death. They were researchers into solar power,trying to free the world from the grip of fossil fuel shortage and thegeopolitics that causes. The Middle Eastern potentates had the most to lose,and touched off what they called a "holy war" in the Holy Land. Lockon knowsfull well that this twisted state of affairs isn't God's fault, or theChurch's, or Setsuna's for getting swept up in events beyond his control orcomprehension. The fact remains however that Lockon's family now rest inpeaces thanks to a terrorist's bomb.

He's decided that the world needs to be changed at its deepest firmament, andto do that he's willed himself to do much the same violent things as thosesame terrorists did, becoming a CB as a result. He fully intends to take hispunishment for perpetuating the cycle of killing, but only after the world isaltered. For now, he wants to shoot Setsuna in the worst way, his only chanceat even an iota of closure for what his family suffered.

Setsuna says that he used to believe in God, or rather was made to believe inHim. He was also forcibly shown that God doesn't exist. A single man wasresponsible for both: Ali al Sarches, the leader of the KPSA and now killer forhire. This warfare addict and Setsuna met in Asad*stan, when Setsuna tried tofigure out one last time where Sarches' God was. Tried to figure out what thepoint of everything he's done is if Sarches wasn't God's emissary after all.

Lockon demands to know one thing: what is Setsuna gonna do with his Gundam.Put an end to the causes of warfare, unless of course Lockon pulls the trigger.That would be fine with Setsuna so long as Lockon makes good on his intent tochange the world for the better in Setsuna's stead. But if he's allowed tolive, he means to fight... as a Gundam. Lockon grimaces, growling that hecan't bring himself to shoot a Gundam-fool like Setsuna, and when Setsuna saysthat's the best compliment he's ever received, Lockon breaks down laughing.

That pretty much breaks the spell, and brings the rest of Zexis over to breathea collective sigh of relief. They won't get a full accounting of what passedbetween the CBs, but the general consensus is that cameraderie and the good ofAll Mankind(tm) has won the day. Crow of course did hear the whole thing,eavesdropping on Lockon's past just as Lockon snooped into Crow's past. Lockonnotes that Crow's old unit, the Firebugs, have quite a lot to answer for too.Crow asks if Lockon means to shoot him too, and Lockon smiles and says he'snot in the habit of shooting fools of any stripe. That's the worst complimentCrow's ever received, for sure.

Graham and his men go to visit the grave of Howard Mason, an admirer ofGraham's test piloting prowess. Now the poor guy can truly fly the skies,using the skills he learned in his beloved captain's shadow. Graham observesthat the guy loved the Flag squad even more than Graham himself, and swears tothe fallen soldier to use the Flag force to srike the Gundams down. He'll havehis men to help, but first there's some big news: someone in one of the GreatNations is about to leak the CBs' most cherished technical secrets! That'swhat most of the "football" fans of the world refer to as "The Equalizer".

CHAPTER 35E. Flames

The charade continues at Ougi's house, where Viletta remains amnesiac andhas settled into a happy life as Ougi's surrogate wife. She loves hernew name "Chigusa", and seems willing to overlook Ougi's strange nervousnessas regards her past. Ougi for his part has grown quite attached to her too,no longer caring about the fact that she might still know Zero's true identitybeneath the amnesia.

Suzaku seems to be in reasonable shape, all things considered. His physicalindicates a certain lack of sleep and symptoms of stress, and given what he'sbeen up to lately that's little wonder. Lloyd knows Suzaku was absent duringthe School Festival, mainly because he was there as Milly's mystery suitor.Lloyd's never made a big deal of his noble title, too busy thinking aboutSCIENCE and his team for petty politicking. For example, he noticed thatMilly's little bespectacled friend is working on something quite interesting;maybe Suzaku could formally introduce them sometime? In any event, Suzakuhesitates to talk about whatever stressful event kept him from the festival,earning him a reminder that he's a key ingredient in the Lancelot's success.

Euphie shows up around this point, and Cecil drags Lloyd away to give themsome privacy. Suzaku gets down to business pretty quickly: he's been forcedto remember the patricide in his dreadful past, and feels unworthy to live,much less be Euphie's knight. Euphie digests this for a moment, then commandshim to fall in love with her. In return, _she_ will will love him with allher heart, even with all his awkwardness and lack of self-confidence andtendency to get bitten by cats. Suzaku can do nothing but smile at thispoint: Euphie's genius for spur-of-the-momentness would melt just aboutanybody's heart. She's realized while he was on dispatch to Zexis that shecan't approach things from a big-picture "better world" standpoint. What shecan do is get people to smile, and he is more than happy to help.

Suzaku heads to Lelouch's place to pass on the news, and as Lelouch isinitially out he fills in Nanaly first. Lelouch arrives and notices thatthe shock of Suzaku's ordeal seems gone. His takeaway from learning ofSuzaku's past is that both he and Nanaly need Suzaku: if he can get Suzaku toleave the army and guard Nanaly instead, everybody wins! Hmm, that may beharder given that Euphie has decided that they're more than friends...

Elsewhere, Kiriko's brought Phantom Lady to the Black Knights' hideout. Whenshe comes to, he tells her that she is at long last free. She relates whatshe remembers of her past, starting with the first memory she ever made: him.He tells her that he was part of an army unit assigned to attack the baseshe was in: he was merely a soldier following orders. She's lived a similarlife till now, as the prototype for the Perfect Soldier program.

As they speak, Kiriko's opponents are getting a tongue-lashing from theirboss. He wants Proto One recovered and sent to HQ _pronto_, and has sentsome help to deal with the Black Knights. Above all else, he wants Kirikodead before he causes any further trouble. Borou has heard that their boss wasthe very one who originally sent Kiriko on the mission to Proto One -- clearlythere's something special about Kiriko in his boss's eyes.

The rest of Zexis has noticed the positive effect a SO has on Kiriko, andbefore long the banter turns to who else could benefit from a little qualityrelationship stuff. Ougi is a bit too hasty in his confirmation of hisbachelorhood, but fortunately for him Phantom Lady is a far more interestingsubject. Wufei has realized just how superlative her combat abilities are,and Crow figures she must have come from some of the rumored experiments atcreating super-soldiers that keep swirling around. Certainly this isn't goodnews for Kokona, who had a hard enough time winning Kiriko's heart versus anormal girl.

Kiriko at length emerges and joins the conversation, and both Roger and Zeroask Kiriko what's so special about him that the peacekeeping forces wouldfocus all their efforts on him in particular. (Zero is doing a good job ofhiding his disappointment at losing Suzaku to Euphie completely.) Kirikoeventually relents, and takes up the tale of how he saw Something He Shouldn'tHave(tm) back before coming to Earth. The Perfect Soldier program, the last-second betrayal after Proto One was taken into custody, his captivity by theGilgamesh army and subsequent failed interrogation, his flight to the ghetto...all of it comes out. The PS program probably feels like the Astrageusrefugees' ace-in-the-hole for securing and even improving their lot on Earth.

The consensus is that the PS program is an egregious violation of human rights,and more than one person on the team can relate to the theme of spiritualbondage and the quest for redemption. Having said his piece, Kiriko announcesthat he's taking Phantom Lady and leaving this town, even if it means partingfrom the Black Knights. He tells Banira and the others that they're welcome tocome along and begins to leave, but before he does Zero produces the moneyto have Phantom Lady's mech to be repaired. As time for this escape isobviously running short, the rest of the team decide to pitch in and help withpreparations -- including Zero, who's a fair hand with software. C.C. knowsthat her pertner-in-crime is seeing much of himself in Kiriko, and Roger goesso far is to give Kiriko a small (unseen) token of their time together alongwith wishes for his success. This is the first time Kirko's heart has beenwarm in who-knows how long.

The two move warily towards the edge of the city, and as expected the peacekeepers turn up to stop them -- not many this time, perhaps due to the lossesthey suffered in the last battle. Kiriko sends PL (that's her moniker fromnow on) coordinates for where they need to break through to, and the battleis on!

 The enemy suck, so our heros make it to the designated spot quickly. There is of course an ambush, and as Kiriko rushes to his ladyfriend's aid he inadvertently shouts out the name "Fiana". Is that the name he's chosen for her? Explanations will have to wait as the Red Shoulders arrive, and once again capture PL. Riemann blames Kiriko for screwing everything up with the PS program, and recognizes Kiriko's latest custom mech setup as something Gregor Galosh once drew up for fun. It's got a red shoulder flare, and Riemann won't stand for Kiriko bearing it.

 ...AND the Black Knights won't stand for Riemann not standing for it. Kokona and friends in particular aren't willing to just cut ties with Kiriko so easily, and with a bit of the money Zero's procured they've made a few preparations of their own . Riemann is quite sure that Zero's men are too far away to intervene, but intervene they do despite deep misgivings and borderline cowardice from Kokona's copilots. Zero's planned it all out: the military action has drawn a crowd of curious spectators, and Kokona pitches 300,000 bucks out the window in a fly by, the crowd starts to riot. For this lot, money means even more than life!

 At the sight of it, Crow goes a bit bonkers himself, zooming over to help throw money in all directions. This provides the distraction they need to get Kiriko back on sounder footing even as the Red Shoulders muster for a counterattack. They represent the last impediment to Kiriko, and Fiana(?), making a clean break with the past, and insofar as they're allied with the peacekeeping forces, they're on the Black Knights' sh*tlist too.

 Wouldn't you know it, interlopers from Britannia show up. The rather sorry state of the ghetto gives Dalton the excuse he's been looking for for finally firing the peacekeeping forces, though he's not as quick to simply strike down the Red Shoulders as well. It seems that having dealt with the pet dog, the Black Knights will have to deal with the owner next.

 Dalton is often hailed as Cornelia's right arm, and seeing him here doing this kind of dirty work raises hopes that Cornelia herself might appear soon. Zero definitely wants to meet her, due to her possible connection to his mother's death. As Dalton's forces are driven back, an even bigger problem occurs though...

Euphemia has teken the mic at the unveiling ceremony for the Clovis MemorialLibrary. She gets right to the point, making good on the promise she made backin Mt. Fuji and announcing that heneforth: the Elevens will regain their rightto call themselves Japanese, and the Britannians will enjoy no more specialprivileges over the Japanese. She calls upon Zero to help her build andnourish this new approach to Japan, regardless of his past or true identity,and to help forge a new future _within_ the Britannia Union. She thinksinwardly to Lelouch that this is the answer she's reached, meaning to rewardhis faith in her (and Nina's love for her(!!)) to the best of her abilities.

This amounts to, if not an admission of defeat, at least an agreement todisagree and let the Japanese get back to their lives. Or... not, in Zero'sview. He shouts that no special privileges Britannia might grant mean a thing;or, has the team forgotten the humiliation of the "honorary Britannian" system? Inwardly, Zero knows that whether he complies with or fights againstEuphie's new regime, the Black Knights are finished -- disbandable, at best.And most of the common people will probably take Tamashiro's view that theannouncement is a victory in practice if not in principle. And any oppositionhe shows will just sap him of his supporter. How could this happen so easily??

If this is how Euphie means to take everything from him, she's seen nothing._Understood_ nothing. There's no way the two of them can go back to the waythings uesd to be, not with him, a masked terrorist! GWAAARGH!

Gwarg. As Zero stalks off, mind in tormented overdrive, the rest of the teammull what will happen next. They too know that the Black Knights are soon tobe disbanded, and ponder the possibility that they'll have to fight Britanniaon their own. It's also not clear that all the ghetto-dwellers' problems areover -- though Euphemia mentioned rights for the Japanese, she said nothingabout the Astrageus folks. They seem likely to remain ghettoised for theforseeable future. And then there's Kiriko, who breaks his habitual silenceto thank his friends for saving his bacon. He even manages about 10% of asmile for about a tenth of a second. The question in his mind is why hecalled PL "Fiana", just before she vanished into the flames. He knows nowthat instead of running from the past, he's got to face it head on. Thatmeans taking out the Red Shoulders, and their founder Yoran Perzen.

CHAPTER 36J. What Lies At the End of a Life

Adeene has volunteered to get revenge for Chimilf, seemingly uncowed by theold addage that "even a cornered armadillo can bite back". Armadillos can justget squashed underfoot, right? Gwarm finds this hopeless, and Sitmandratries to curry favor with Lowgenome by taking the mission himself. Adeeneinsists though, saying that Chimilf shared a bond with her that transcendedgender. Um, is that as in the old in-out-in-out? Gwar as much as calls hera slu*t, but what interests Lowgenome is that these beings -- all creations ofhis -- should have developed feelings for each other beyond what he originallydesigned. He gives Adeene the assignment but with an additional condition:she is to kill Nia in whatever way she can. Lowgenome senses a bit ofdissatisfaction from his other lieutenants, but none of them dare contradicttheir creator openly. He dismisses them and muses over the sorry fate ofhumanity, who bring themselves closer to destruction with every step they taketoward the light.

The Getter team are warmly received back at base. Benkei's been busting hisass and could well fill in for Musashi any time he has to. Genki (not lookingterribly happy, in fact) Michiru and Shikishima are on hand too, all eager toget cracking at testing the new Getter. A taller order than Ryouma mightthink, in Saotome's mind. He kindly sends Genki off to his rom so that he canyell at his team in peace, and after the ruckus dies down he tells them thatwhat they'll be testing today is not the true next-gen Getter, but rather astepping stone. Getter Rays contain infinite possibilities, and it's up tothe pilots whether they can keep up with Getter Robo's evolution.

Musashi might have a bit of trouble staying atop the food chain, given howmuch of it he gobbled down at the farewell banquet. Benkei's piloting is tooerratic to yield useful data, so Michiru gets to pilot Poseidon for thecombining test. Saotome knows that the best way to motivate his crew is totalk massive amounts of trash, and maybe it really is best that Genki not bearound to see it.

Nia is doing her best to help around the ship by learning to cook -- a ratherun-princessly thing to do. She announces happily that she's no longer aprincess, and tells the team that her father isn't likely to come to get herafter she made him mad. What did she do, exactly? Asked why she was born.Clearly this beast lord guy has some issues. The pilots mull that over as theydig into breakfast, still chatting about Ranka Lee's Lin Minmei impression.It's a big mystery who taped her "first live concert", given it was happeningduring an attempted coup d'etat. It seems many fans have already startedturning their back on Sheryl, who it seems isn't permitted even a single day'stummy troubles or anything lest she get thrown to the wolves.

They say wolves will eat anything if they're hungry. So will the Zexis pilots,up to a point. Nia in her guileless way has moved past that point, creating adish so outlandish, so traumatic, that even the iron-stomached Jiron can'tbegin to describe. Roshuu couldn't bring himself to warn the others afterseeing how happy Nia was at the stove, and it seems Nia has only one sincerefan of her cooking: Simon! Either this is a miracle of love, or Simon has notastebuds left at all, but in either case it's good to see Nia integrated withthe team.

Except... maybe for Youko. Though she brushes off questions if she's alright,Gain's seen her look at Nia with a sniper's eye more than once. Crow'snoticed the same, and figures that Youko is still going to need more time toaccept the girl as part of her extended family. Gain, frankly, is glad thatCrow's fear of women isn't part of a larger misanthropy. Awww.

But enough with the mushy stuff: Invaders have, um, invaded Tokyo and needtheir asses dismantled. Roshuu is feeling sick as a dog, and Simon tellsBuuta to do his thing... that thing being offering his tail to Roshuu to eat.Bizarre? Yes. Delicious? Also, yes. The usual words of encouragement aresaid by the battleship pilots, and Youko just can't abide Nia's plain old"good luck". Something's got to give...

 A bit into the battle, Getter shows up -- and immediately it becomes clear that something is wrong. VERY wrong from how upset Ryouma is. The immediate problem is Adeene, who appears in her ginormous Daigunkai as soon as the first wave of cannon fodder are toast. Adeene seems to know something about the "naked ravagers" (i.e. the Invaders), but she certainly won't divulge her lord's knowledge so easily. Nia wants to go and try to talk Adeene into stopping, and Youko testily tells Kitan to do it: maybe they can all finally figure out what's _raelly_ going on inside Nia's head. This sounds hostile, but Gain and Crow advise going through with it. Simon gives his okay, and Youko warns Nia that her rifle is aimed squarely at her back. Should Nia try anything funny, Youko won't hesitate to pull her trigger.

 Adette confirms to Nia that her people's mission is the slaughter of all humans on the surface -- at Nia's father's orders. Nia demands to know if Adeene in any way questions this order, and Adeene sounds almost puzzled as she replies that she would no more doubt orders to kill humans than she would orders to kill any other form of worm. Adette then informs Nia in no uncertain terms that she's been thrown out by Lowgenome, and is to be cut to ribbons just like all the other pathetic humans -- and no she doesn't get to talk to the guy and appeal.

 At least this explains what Nia was doing locked in that box that Simon saved her from... as well as why they haven't tried to mount a rescue. Nia can't believe her father would order her death, and asks if Adeene hates her too. Adeene sniffs that her own hatreds have nothing to do with it: she's doing no more and no less than carrying out the Spiral Lord's orders. Oh, izzat so?

 If Lowgenome ordered Adeene to die on the spot, would she? How can Adeene just blindly follow orders like that, when those orders mean the deaths of zillions of innocents whose only crime is wanting to live on the Surface? Adeene starts getting into it now, saying that Chimilf's death is certainly crime enough -- but again Nia counters that the humans lost Kamina too. And that loss was _deeply_ painful. Can't Adette see the fault in their two sides causing each other such heartache?

 As it turns out, no! Adeene says that she now understands why the Spiral Lord cast Nia away. Nia's friends rally to her cause, and Nia won't brook Adeene insulting them. Adeene therefore grabs Nia to use as a hostage, and there are only two options for snipers that might be able to set her free. Gain's been wounded in the previous battle [actually no he hasn't with me at the controls, but whatever], so the job falls to Youko. She doesn't want to help Nia out, but Crow tells her sternly that it's either that, or put Nia out of her misery. Youko protests that he's not being fair, and Crow tells her that that's the kind of guy he is. If she wants to hate him for it, so be it.

 That flips a switch for Youko, and as she takes aim Nia is actually the one that calls for her to fire. She blasts the arm holding Nia perfectly, and Nia jumps to safety with a little help from her friends. Once she's safely back on board the flagship, Youko asks why Nia told her to fire, and Nia says happily that she knew Youko the genius sniper would hit Adette. That is, she believes in Youko, even if the feeling hasn't been exactly mutual.

 Right, that's got the making-friends part out of the way, and wonder of wonders Gain isn't quite as wounded as he made out. Time for Adeene to see if she'll be any more successful at smiting all these annoying humans than her paramour was.

 A new wrinkle shows up in short order: the three pieces of the new Getter Robo, zooming around shooting anything and everything in sight. Is this Saotome's doing, maybe due to Michiru's (accidental) death? Ryouma blames himself for screwing up and costing her her life, and the normally-placid Hayato is stunned at the thought that the good doctor is trying to take his life. Ryouma yells at him to calm down -- that even if Saotome is out for blood, it sure as hell won't be his. Even though the new Getters are more powerful, they don't have the three united pilots aiding them.

Fighting the rogue Getter mecha is a major shock to the system, even if theyaren't so hard to fend off. After the battle Saotome phones up to explainwhat's going on: he did _not_ sic them on the Getter team because of Michiru'sdeath. That was a _small_ thing compared to the looming threat of the end ofthe world. He's turned them on the Getter team because of their incompetence,and shouts that he needs neither them nor even Zexis to fix this rotten world.Let all who here prepare for the END TIMES!!!

That doesn't sound at all ominous or anything. Back in the hangar, Ryouma andthe others relate what happened during the combination tests. Though the twoof them berate themselves, especially Hayato, Musashi repeats that Michiru'sdeath was an accident: Shikishima looked at the data and proclaimed thatRyouma and Hayato piloted perfectly. That might make it Michiru's fault thatshe got killed. Or it might be Musashi's fault for not being at his usualpost. In either case, it's Ryouma who points out in agony that nothing willbring Michiru back -- and that's something ALL of them will have to bear.Saotome has shut off communications with his lab, and it's beginning to looklike he really does mean to start a Getter War with the world.

As though that wasn't bad enough news, worse comes in from Area Eleven. Alarge crowd of people had gathered for the official enactment of Euphemia'sJapan-permitted zone... only to be all executed, apparently on Euphemia'sorders!! The Black Knights burst in to try to stem the tide, but after theImperium further muddied the waters the whole scene ended indecisively.Britannia itself has issued no statement regarding Euphemia's actions, and onecan certainly expect resistance to Britannia to get stronger in all itsoccupied territories.

Calling this debacle hard to believe would be the understatement of the year.Terrorist activity in Britannia's territories is escalating even as the pilotsjaws drop, and from what Elgan's found out, the Imperium is stoking the chaosby inserting its forces into the war zones. Elgan has summoned Zexis backtogether to combat this new fiasco, leaving the peacekeeping army's watchfuleyes on the Saotome lab. Ryouma is adamant that Saotome isn't going to doanything to bring the world's armies down on him: he made Getter Robo to_save_ the world! He and his teammates will join the convocation at Dragon'sHive, and Ryouma really hopes that he doesn't have to fight his mentor.

Indeed, back at the Saotome lab the good doctor is grieving over his daughter.He vows to Genki that he will not let him die too. Benkei gently leads Genkisomewhere to rest, and Saotome's howls of anguish are interrupted by Corwenand Stinger phoning up. Hardly the bearers of sympathy, they observe thathe's about to become like them. Won't it be nice to research stuff togetheronce more, just like old times? The remind him of his mission: creatingthe ultimate Getter as a signpost toward their comrades. Yes, that is thetruth, that is his legacy, his life's work, his ultimate mission, etc. etc.Whatever's really going on, you have to feel for the poor guy...

CHAPTER 36C. Tested Resolve

Sumeeragi is really getting worried, enough to request an OS upgrade for theCBs mecha from other members of Zexis. Kira and the others know that Tieliadoesn't much like outsiders fiddling with his gear, but Tielia says that he'strusted them all this far -- it's a bit late to start distrusting them now.With prompting from Aslan, it seems even Tielia is beginning to come out of hisshell. Meanwhile the other pilots are musing over the CBs' modus operandi:is taking all mankind's weapons away really going to stop all the infighting?And if it did, what about protection from external foes like those Imperiumyarbos? Who knows. All Shinn knows for certain is that the look in the CBs'eyes when they talk about wanting peace is genuine.

Harry buys that, but what he can't get past is how reckless the CBs' strategyseems. Surely they realize that their powerful mecha aren't unrivaled, right?Unless Sumeragi and whoever she reports to are total idiots, the onlyconclusion can be that the CBs' plans for world peace actually revolve aroundsomething _other_ than stirring up trouble militarily.

Tielia meanwhile is most worried about whoever the CB's traitor is, and whatthe consequences for the world would be if this person gained unfettered accessto Veda. He admits his anxiety to Lockon, and wonders if the CBs are up tobattling their fellow mecha without Veda's aid. Well, they still have theirGundams, and they still have Sumeragi. Crow's never known her to be wrong, butapparently she's made one, very major, mistake in her past. The sort ofmistake that can turn one into an alcoholic to ease one's broken heart. Lockonknows that it's hard times like this when team unity is most important, andthough he doesn't see it immediately, Crow assures him that even Setsuna haslearned something about that. Not that they should expect the guy to suddenlyturn into Duo or whatnot...

So, about Veda... it's got visitors in the form of Ribbons and Alejandro.The time has now come for the Conner Clan's long-cherished dream to come true,and Alejandro refers repeatedly to Ribbons as his guardian angel for locatingthe CB's base... on the moon of all places! Alejandro's waited 200 years forthis moment, and is prepared to wait a little longer while Ribbons makes thenecessary preparations for what's about to come next.

Orumi is in an interesting position as an intelligence agent, neutral regardingthe squabble between the two factions in the "implementation" part of theCelestial Beings. She's not siding with Johann and friends as such, but sheis willing to give them some of the help they desperately need. She pledgesto make preparations to send them and their mecha to space, and will phone backwhen all is ready. In the meanthile, they'll need to keep moving and try toavoid getting themselves killed.

Right about then is when Sarches of all people wanders up to their camp, sentby his employer to take care of them. Mind you, the last several people he"took care of" are now six feet under, including the famous Ragna. Sarchesdoes something somewhat unexpected: he simply shoots Mihael dead! Johann triesto fight back bare-handed, and manages only to demonstrate that he does _not_know kung-fu. Sarches orders them into their mecha so he can have thesatisfaction of killing them properly. Even more astonishing, he hops inMihael's own mecha -- whose biometric locks are all inoperative -- and startsblasting. Johann protests that the Trintiies are Gundam Meisters: they'resupposed to change the world! How could Veda cast them aside?!

Sarches gets sick of this in a hurry and demolishes Johann and his mech in onefell swoop. Sarches finds GN particle-fuelled explosions particularly pretty,and is about to finish Neina off too when the cavalry arrive. They quicklyfigure out that Sarches has stolen Throne Zwei, and as Sarches' friends arriveNeina vows revenge... and then wisely buggers off. Lockon warns the rest ofthe team that Sarches is a bloodthirsty animal, impervious to any rationalarguments to stay his hand. Sumeragi orders everyone to attack the PMC forces,with special attention paid to blowing Sarches away. This is just fine withSetsuna, who won't stand for a Gundam falling into the hands of evil.

 Even the ferocious Sarches can only do so much when piloting a strange mech for the first time. Luckily for him, Veda's assistance to the CB's Gundams cuts out right before they can strike the final blow -- just like that fateful day in Cursis. Setsuna is stunned by the fact that even though he's piloting a Gundam, he doesn't get to _be_ a Gundam! He then gets unstunned when his teammates point out that a) he's still alive, and b) he's got help this time around, and c) he needs to get his head out of his ass already.

 And let's not forget d) the Veda-like combat OS that Kira and friends whipped up, which entirely makes up for the abrupt loss of everyone's favorite quantum computer. Lockon and Setsuna are with the program, but Tielia is a quivering wreck at the thought of being cast out by Veda. And wouldn't you know it, Eim's shown up to rub more than a little salt in his wounds. Sarches seizes the opportunity to attack the defenseless pilot, and only a very valiant move by Lockon saves him from being cut entirely in half.

Setsuna is next on the menu, and though he's hanging in there like a trooperAlejandro is confident that Sarches will prove the victor. Meanwhile Ribbonshas breached level 7 of Veda, meaning the whole system is now his. Thatmeans it's time for Alejandro to have a face-to-face meeting with... IoriaSchenberg! The guy put himself into cold sleep while believing that hissuccessors would revolutionize the world... which is a lot of risk toundertake. Alejandro gloats that Ioria's plans for a unified world and hisCelestial Being minions won't cut it, and that Iorio himself won't live longenough to see the sort of unification Alejandro has in mind.

What neither he nor Ribbons seems to have considered is that someone mighthave planned for a breakin. A voiceover laments how foolish mankind isstill clinging to its warmongering ways and driving the world toward ruin.Going all multidimensional isn't going to help either -- a 200-year oldprophecy that sounds eerily true. Even so, Ioria's faith in mankind remains,and he means to ensure that it has the tools it needs to answer.

As Sarches finally corners Setsuna, Setsuna vows that neither he nor hisGundam will lose to the likes of this jackwagon. Suddenly the Exia begins toglow, and Setsuna goes to ludicrous speed as it slices Sarches' mech tobits. Ioria's voice then comes to the Gundam pilots, hoping that they'refriendly to his cause and telling them that the full power of GN Drive is nowtheirs to use to further root out the causes of all warfare... not as CelestialBeings, but for their own sake and by their own will.

In short, the "Trans-Am" System, installed only in those Gundams with theoriginal Solar Reactors. Tifa realizes that Ioria must also be the oneresponsible for beaming energy to Garode's mech. Eim isn't so thrilled, andsince he didn't manage to crush the heart of any of Crow's comrades, heresorts to brute force. Imperium forces flood the area, and Lockon isn't invery good shape to do anything about it. Tielia takes him off the battlefieldbefore he gets killed, and Eim does his usual gloating about wanting to seeCrow wish he was dead. Fat f*cking chance, even with Margret as part of theforces Eim's arraying against him. Margret seems serious this time, and thatis just fine with Crow.

Margret is bent on revenge for her brother. She's also fighting _totally_ thewrong people to wreak vengeance _on_, and once again gets sent packing withoutso much as a souvenir. Just who this brother of hers is is a mystery to theteam, given that as far as they know the Imperium's only ever fieldedDimensional Beast troops except for her, Eim, and the Lord of Destruction(tm).In any case, Crow's scales may still be swaying, but his base is rock-solid...which means that Eim will just have to go sulk and dream up some even moresad*stic plan for next time.

There's no time to celebrate the victory, as bad things (see 36J) are brewingin Area Eleven. Watching from his study, Treize can't help but furl hisimpressively aristocratic brow. The trigger Euphemia pulled will exponentiallyescalate the violence that the Imperium and other common enemies of mankindhas started. Amuro tells him that he should have the power to stop it, butTreize smiles ruefully and says the only power he's got is to ride in theslipstream of world events. Amuro demands to know if Treize prefers the worldthis way, and Treize answers that as one of the people who helped get thingsto their present state, he it would be rather illogical to be otherwise.Amuro figured Treize for a smarter individual than that, and though he himselflacks a master plan to restore order, he does have something he can do: joinZexis and take out the trash as a pilot. Treize means to honor his promise tolet Amuro depart freely, and when Amuro says he wanted to believe in Treize'sway of doing things, Treize says that he will believe in Amuro... that hebecome one of the Defeated. Now, what about Quatro?

As the pilots deliberate Euphemia's unbelievable act, the commanders informthe troops that Zexis is being reconstituted again. The CBs will go with aheavy heart, certain now that they've got a traitor in their midst and thatVeda must be considered thoroughly compromised. Fortunately Zexis will betheir support structure now, and the CB's enemy is surely an enemy of mankindat large. Lockon sounds like he'll pull through okay, which is very good asthe CBs are in desperate need of an elder-brother figure. As the meetup willbe back at Dragons' Hive, the Nova team look forward to forcibly extractingsome answers from F.S. about what's really going on with the R-Daigun andthe whole True Dancougar business.

And let's not be too hasty about Lockon, who as they say is (barely) livingproof that things have moved past the "all fun and games" stage. He insiststhat with Haro at his side, his fabled sniping will outlast the loss of oneeye. The problem is Tielia, who feels that he's lost the only reason he wasmade a Meister now that he can't direct-link with Veda. That comes as a majorsurprise to Felt, even as it explains why Tielia's funk caused the new OS tocrash on his mech. How the hell can a living human directly access a computer?In any case, Lockon points out to Tielia that they can still carry out theirmission, even if it got a bit harder without Veda's help -- just look at allthe people they've got around them to help? And anyway, about the eye: to erris human, after all. It's a computer what's needed to _really_ f*ck things up.

Yet even with the computer Veda at his disposal, Alejandro won't be able tooverturn Ioria's carefully-laid plans so easily. All data about the GN Drive'strue capabilities is absent from Veda's records... and now so is all dataregarding the CBs' identities. Alejandro rages that he won't be undone by some200 year-old idealistic f*ckhead playing God, but Ribbons thinks that Ioria maybe more than just _playing_ at godhood. However, the information about Ioria'sgood friend that Ribbons found in Veda may yet provide the key they need.Trying to catch his breath, Alejandro growls that his plans have entered theirfinal phase: now they just need to eliminate those few people left standing inthe way. He means to take out the CBs and the rest of Zexis with his ownhands, which sounds like a great way to ensure that they get blown off -- butwhat do I know?

CHAPTER 36E. Bloody Euphie

Schneizer and Cornelia hold a teleconference over Euphemia's incredible coup,and opinions are sharply divided. Cornelia doesn't like how Euphie dreamtthe whole thing up herself, but that apparently didn't stop her sending hertop lieutenant Dalton to help. Then again, Cornelia maintains that Dalton'spresence constitutes a standard security measure such as anyone would takefor an announcement with such wide-reaching implications. Schneizer tellsCornelia that he wants to believe that Euphie's gambit will pay off -- mankindhas far too many external enemies to be fighting among themselves. Corneliablanches but holds her tongue, managing to hang up without emitting a squawk.

Schmeizer does sympathize with Cornelia's mixed feelings, but he's mostlyrelieved that he won't have to send the experimental Combination intoArea Eleven. Instead, he and the experimental gear will be sent to theRosenburg lab. The time has come to focus on getting rid of the Imperium;the Kaminejima incident and all other matters can wait till stability isrestored to the land.

"Chigusa" wants to go participate in Euphie's Japan Free Zone, and Oogi knowsthat he and she will be able to live there without regard for their ethnicity.He promises to go with her after taking care of just a bit more business.He's not the only one thinking along those lines: most of the civilians andeven several of the Black Knights are finding Euphemia's propsition far moreappealing than Zero's brand of liberation. Even the Kyouto organization arerumored to be in favor of the Free Zone, which is only natural if their goalis to restore the Japanese way of life. And who can really blame the publicfor wanting the shortest route to a safe, secure society?

The real question is, should the Black Knights sign up to help? Wufei asksRoger's opinion, and it's very true that freedom, equality and promises allsound very nice. It's precisely that pleasant sound that should inspiredistrust of the speaker... unless that speaker is of impeachable character. Inhis estimation, Euphemia fits the profile. Tamashiro demands to know who'sside Roger's on, and Roger smiles and replies that he's on the side of thetruth. If the Black Knights participate, they'll be forced to disarm andrelinquish their independence. If they resist, they'll become enemies offreedom and equality by default. So what's Zero's verdict?

He'll tell them when they all arrive at Mt. Fuji, the site of the Free Zone.Zero arrives in full regalia and takes to the stage to address Euphemia. Herequests a private conference for the two of them before making a publicstatement. Suzaku doesn't like this idea, but Zero tells him he hopes forSuzaku's trust -- after all, Suzaku is in large measure responsible for all the(would-be) Japanese gathered here. Zero inwardly blames himself in part forSuzaku being someone else's standard- bearer. Euphie agrees and the tworetreat to the bridge of her flagship.

Zero is slow to remove his helmet, accustomed to a life of paranoia thanksto a certain empire's good offices. He's managed to smuggle in a needle-gun,made of ceramic and bamboo, and does _not_ mean to shoot Euphie with it.Rather, he wants _her_ to shoot _him_, in public. Both know what that wouldcause: Zero would be a martyr, and Euphie's plan would devolve into chaos.Euphie, alarmed and perplexed, repeats that she wants him to help her builda proper Japan, but he counters that a Japan-by-fiat would be no differentfrom what Clovis tried. He tells her that all the conditions are ripe forthe public to kowtow to a miracle -- the miracle of his resurrection afterthree days in the Cave.

As she hesitates, Lelouch feels his Geass powers swelling. He turns awayfrom her, shouting that he wants no more of her pity. He IS going to achievehis goals with his own hands, and he WILL see the princess defiled to make ithappen! His rage is frozen in its tracks, though, when she tells him she'srenounced her title -- the least she could do for getting him to buy into whatshe's trying to sell. Scowling, he asks if she did it for his sake, and shesmiles at his self-confidence. Not for his sake, but for Nanaly's!

She relates a conversation she had with Nanaly in secret, while Zero was offwith Zexis. Nanaly told her that she wants nothing more than to be with herbrother, and that made her mind up. After all her agonizing and consultingMarina and Rilina, she's come up with the best way to restore everyone's smile.

After all that, Lelouch has to smile. Ever since they were kids, her guilelessoptimism has always stood her in good stead, even in the face of Lelouch'sstrategic brilliance. That never changed, even after she became a publicfigure and vice-governor. He tells her that she's the most vicious opponenthe's ever faced, and graciously admits defeat. He'll do everything in hispower to help make this Free Zone succeed, though he cautions that he isn'tgoing to become her subordinate. She teases him for thinking that she'dactually shoot him, and he tells her that if he'd genuinely ordered her to doit, she'd have had no choice. Hell, he could order her to kill all theJapanese, for example, and she'd have no choice.

Um. Remember how Mao eventually lost the ability to shut his Geass off?Ever heard of Shakespearian-grade tragedy? Well, the ante has just been upped,as Lelouch accidentally Geasses Euphie and, after a brief yet agonizingstruggle with herself, she sets about the project of slaughtering the Japanese.She reemerges onto the stage, and tells all those calling themselves Japanesethat she has a favor to ask: for them to die. Seeing that they don'tcommit suicide on the spot, she orders her soldiers to fire. Zero is powerlessto stop her as she fires the first shot, and mass chaos erupts as thegunfire begins.

All this time the Black Knights have been parked nearby, waiting to see whatthe Britannians are really up to. Toujou thinks Zero has already guessed whatthey're really up to, and has a plan ready to stop it. Roger says they'reall about to find out if Zero prefers independence within a box, orindependence at the end of war. With Diethart and his cameras at the ready,is it possible that Zero means to actually do Euphie in? Zero certainly isone difficult man to read... as are all those who tread the King's Path, asEim would have it!

Eim claims to be here to help celebrate the Black Knights' involvement inthe Japan Free Zone, and figures that it's just about time for the main eventto start. And whaddya know, Ougi gets word from Diethart that Euphemia hasjust ordered the wholesale slaughter of the Japanese! In fact, what Diethartis seeing is beyond his wildest dreams, and all thanks somehow or other toZero. More eye-catching, anyway, than Euphie shooting Zero as he told hispeople might happen. Lakshata can't see how this much carnage strikes Diethartas fun, and he gushes that now the whole world will turn against Britanniaand rally around Zero. To him, Britannia is just grist for his camera -- andthat grist is now well past its expiration date. Lakshata originally signed onto this outfit to gather experimental data, but she isn't inclined to back outnow... and besides, Zero's a pretty interesting guy.

As for Zero, he knows full well that he and (or) his Geass are responsible forthis hellish turn of events, and that there's nothing he can do to turn backthe clock. Therefore, it's time to make the best of a very bad situation.Dalton runs over to Zero and demands to know what he's done to Euphie, butZero vanishes in a flash of pyrotechnics. Meanwhile, Suzaku is franticallysearching for Euphie without success. He tells Lloyd and Cecil to searchfor the two of them while he tries to lead the people out of the arena, butjust then an unfamiliar voice tells _him_ to go find Euphie and get her toreverse her orders. The speaker will lead the remaining people to safety...

Eim intimates that this whole mess is somehow Zero's fault, which of courseKaren and the others are not ready to believe at first blush. In fact, headmits openly that he's trying to make the Black Knights falter -- as usual,he finds it ever so much more fun to debase Crow's friends before taking Crowhimself out. He makes no move to stop Crow as he and the others rush to thethe battlefield, knowing that the aftermath of this tragedy will affect themall deeply.

Toujou orders the troops to breach the walls of the stadium so the peopleinside can escape. That means going through the Imperial soldiers, who arebent on obeying Euphemia's orders. Fortunately they've got an ally: Banjouof all people, who easily breaches the stadium walls and begins the evacuation.He gives his "circle of the sun" speech to the Imperials, which of coursemeans mayhem. He knows as well as anyone that the chains of hatred and ragewill only lead to more fighting, but he also knows that the immediate chaosmust be stemmed before anyone could listen to reason.

 Many among Zexis are quite stymied by Euphemia's out-of-character act. Roger in particular vows to get to the bottom of it.

As for Zero, he's found Euphie still babblingly happily about killing theJapanese. When she sees him, she confusedly proposes working with him tocreate a Free Japan Zone, and he murmers that he had hoped to do just that.Instead, he shoots her, crying beneath his mask over the lost of what wasprobably his first love. Suzaku and C.C. arrive at around this point, and asSuzaku screams out Euphie's name, Zero and C.C. wisely withdraw. Euphieseems to regain some of her senses as she recognizes Suzaku's face.

Back in the Gawain, C.C. tells Lelouch that she never expected he'd go _this_far. He tells her that he didn't _mean_ to Geass Euphie, and she realizes thathis Geass has begun to elude his control. Lelouch genuinely thought he wasprepared for how dangerous this power would be, and can probably be forgivenfor things getting _this_ far out of hand. He asks for a sitrep, and Diethartproclaims that he's shown the whole world what happened here today.

Crow asks if this was part of Zero's plan, and Zero carefully replies thathe never anticipated Euphemia to take leave of her senses like this. Crowasks again: did Zero induce Euphemia to do this? No, is his reply. Zeroforestalls any ranting at Euphemia's expense when he states flatly that hekilled her himself. Eim, still watching from the sidelines, says that thisaccumulation of sins is every inch befitting the Devil himself. He sends outhis shock troops to cause Crow more misery, and among them is a newly-enragedMargret. Zero orders the troops to thwart the Imperium forces and show theJapanese gathered here at least one ray of hope.

See the other paths for Eim whining as he leaves. Zero says that he's goingback to the ghetto to plan his next move, and asks if the Zexis folks willaccompany him. Banjou's with it, and says he's got several things he wants tocheck out along the way. Zero knows that there is truly no way but forwardfrom now on.

Somewhere... else, Charles is somehow aware of what's been going on, andcackles with glee that his son Lelouch, aka Zero, has finally gone and done"it". He proclaims that Lelouch bears the Power of the King, and it's entirelyup to Lelouch what result that will lead to. He must dance, and fight, to theutmost of his ability, till the day the world is unified!

Impressively, Euphemia did _not_ die immediately from her wounds: Suzaku hasgotten her to an Imperial hospital. She seems stable enough that Lloyd canleave her alone with Suzaku while they all wait for Cornelia to arrive.Suzaku asks why she gave the order she did, and Euphie says she doesn't knowwhat he's talking about. She asks if he too is Japanese, and when he agreesshe gets a gleam in her eye and seems to wrestle with herself over whether sheshould kill him too. She settles on "not", and asks Suzaku how the eventwent -- were the Japanese people pleased? Did she do a good job? Suzakuhesitates a moment, then tells her she did just great, and that Japan isgrateful to her.

Her sight begins to fail, and she tells him to be sure to finish school, whichshe failed to do. Tears streaming down his face, he tells her that they cango to Ashford right now, where a fun party will be waiting. She repeats thathe has to do what she could not. She slips away, and the heartbroken guycries out to no one in particular, asking why she had to die. A child thenwalks into this presumably maximum-security hospital ward, offering toexplain. The child names himself V.V., and says that Zero is to blame forEuphemia going crazy. He'll tell Suzaku all about himself, and about Zero,one day soon. For now, suffice it to say that Zero is someone Suzaku knowswell -- and if Suzaku wants to know more, he'd better go on fighting to changethe world...

As expected, all of Britannia's territories are in revolt after what they'veseen. The Imperium has sent in dimensional beasts to intensify the fighting,satisfying their lust for bloodshed and mayhem as Banjou knows well. He'sbeen roaming the world on a mission from F.S. ever since arriving, and waspursuing Eim when the two arrived in Area Eleven. Eim is a menace that growsdaily, and must be stopped before he truly sends this world to hell.

Diethart has the gall to confront Banjou over saving most of the spectators:he was trying to get a picture of utter carnage and instead got some kindof humanitarian aid crap. So he what, wanted loads of Japanese to die? Hesniffs that all those gathered for Euphemia's farce are weak-minded foolsunsuitable for the new Japan Zero is trying to build. The least they couldhave done is lay down their lives for the Black Knights' cause. Banjou asksif Zero concurs, and Zero definitely does _not_: Banjou is to be commendedfor his swift efforts to save lives. He cuts off Diethart's protest bypointing out that they're not shooting a f*cking soap opera here: the lastthing this world needs is pointless bloodshed!

As Diethart clams up, a visitor to the compound commends Zero on histhinking. It is none other than Kagura, first daughter of the highest of theSix Houses of Kyouto. She is in a sense the highest ranking Japan-ist in theland, and she's come here, as it were, as Zero's biggest fan. He's tallerthan she pictured [thanks to Mokona's character design style] but she promisesshe can catch up to him quickly enough. She states that when Zero takes overJapan, he'll need a wife... one who doesn't mind that he can't reveal himselfto the masses. She, self-proclaimed Goddess of Victory, has every confidencethat he'll win.

Zero tells her that while he appreciates the offer, he's already sruck abargain with the devil -- he can't see himself making nice with a goddess too.In fact, he's about to head back to Zexis, expecting a call from Elgan toreassemble the full team. He tells an incredulous Diethart that there's noway Japan, or any corner of the Earth, can hope for peace so long as theImperium remains. He now has _zero_ doubt in his mind that unless the BlackKnights exercise their mandate for Justice for the good of all, Japan cannever be free.

That sounds great to Crow and the G-boys. Duo reckons that if the BlackKnights were to take on Britannia head-on right now, the result would only beJapan getting ruined the rest of the way. Zero is glad the Zexis folks andhe are on the same page, and orders Diethart to make preparations for properresistance against Britannia when the time comes -- and to NOT use the massacrein the propaganda. Any panic engendered in the public can only work to theImperium's advantage. Diethart reluctantly agrees, whereas Kagura is veryenthused about being Zero's liason to Kyouto. Diethart does tell Zero thathe's going to regret passing up the greatest chance he's gotten at strikingBritannia, and Zero inwardly fumes that "regret" is a luxury he gave up longago. His decision to confront the Imperium is in large part an efforto to makeit up to Euphie for ruining her dream -- whether or not she forgives him, hedamn well intends to see at least one part of that dream come true.

Lelouch does return briefly to Ashford Academy, setting up another longbout of "study abroad". Suzaku asks if this has anything to do with Euphemia'sdeath, and Lelouch replies that the death of his childhood playmate is thelast thing he wants to think about just now. Suzaku ponders a moment, andasks Lelouch if there's anyone he hates enough to want them dead. Lelouchallows that there is, and Suzaku says that he used to believe that kind ofthinking was wrong. That not fighting according to the rules was nothing butmurder. He now finds himself driven by a murderous rage, and both of themknow that "Zero" is the target. Lelouch, to Suzaku's surprise, tells him to goahead and hate Zero, especially if it's for Euphie's sake. He himself decidedlong ago never to turn back, and Suzaku thanks him for being his friend thesepast seven years. He doubts he'll be able to see Lelouch off, as he too ispreparing to travel into battle. He bids Lelouch what sounds like a veryfinal "farewell", and Lelouch realizes that Suzaku is starting to suspect him.So be it -- Lelouch has nothing left to lose now [unless you count Nanaly,which is a pretty dreadful thought given how things are already].

Lelouch is now good and willing to fight his old friend if need be, far tooimmersed in his path of destruction and loss to let his sentiments get inthe way: this destruction is what's necessary for new creation to flourish.C.C. is waiting for him, inwardly mourning that the Lelouch too is willing tomake himself a victim of this unfolding tragedy.

[I kept the "C" route because I want Alto's upgrade later; I went with Sherylin terms of who to save.]

CHAPTER 37. Heroically, and Beautifully

The world is clearly in a sorry state after recent events, and it seems thatthe Great Nations have finally decided to take drastic measures. Accordingto news reports, they've just forged a military alliance and will deploytheir forces under the joint command of the Security Council. This marks thebirth of the greatest army in history, which you might imagine would be agood thing. But you'd be wrong. The alliance is supported not by an interestin the common good, but rather by the sharing of the CBs' stolen technology.The three Nations are mainly interested in preventing each other from gettinga leg up in the arms race... and in ensuring that none of the lesser nationsget to share. Marina would like to believe that the union is still a partialstep forward, but forward into what?

At least four of the Areas have had their local governments collapse in thewake of the terrorism and Imperium involvement touched off by the debacle inArea Eleven. Marina would never in her wildest dreams have guessed thatEuphemia would do anything like that, and still finds it very hard to accept.The great irony is that the Imperium seemingly has done what the CBs did not:united the world. Xielin believes that the CBs' armed intervention wasultimately supposed to force everybody together against the common threatthey pose -- as the ZEUTH Earth evidently did. The main question is, withan "Earth Federation" now underway, will Zexis still have a role?

They will in fact, if the "putting the paths back together debriefing" everends. Just read the above prose if you want to know what's being blatheredon about. In the conference room with the top brass, the first piece of goodnews is that the Ptolemeios has received a care package from space: armamentsboth for its mecha and for itself -- maybe enough to fill the gap left byLockon's wounds a bit. The CBs are feeling just a tad disenfranchised by thefact that the Imperium, not they, have united the world... and Zero views thenewfound sense of global unity with profound distrust. Whoever betrayed theCBs and disseminated their technology is in the driver's seat of the new worldorder, and that is a very bad prospect.

Sumeragi recommends leaving it up to Elgan to keep that entity's plans in check-- for now at least -- and focusing instead of Moralia and the PMC Trust.Signs point to the CBs' traitor using them for their personal gain, and takingthem out might lead to a few clues about who this "Mr. X" really is. On theother hand, it could also turn public opinion against Zexis, tying their handsfor futurre housecleaning in the new Earth Federation. Tanaka seems not tograsp this, so the commanders turn to F.S. for an explanation of what he'sreally got in mind. "You'll find out later" is not going to cut it this time."For the future of mankind" sounds too abstract, or perhaps large-scale, butthat's precisely the magnitude of threat F.S. believes the world faces. "It"isn't going to stand idly by with the world in the state it's in.

Before we find out what "it" is, word comes in that Dragon's Hive has a fewvisitors: a befy of idol stars! Eiyda has somehow tracked the place down,which even Grace proved unable to do. Sheryl wonders if they should have atleast gotten an appointment, but Eiyda says that this is their big chance tolive a little without fear of the press or their fans reacting badly. Plus,she and Ranka have the power of love on their side! Sheryl is trying to focuson recreation, having brought her manager along for bad^Wgood measure andfully intending to make up for all the concerts she's had to cancel.

Nia comes into the waiting room at this point, lost as usual in the Dragons'Hive's twisty corridors. Eiyda immediately takes a liking to her and asksif she's ever thought about becoming an idol singer. Certainly Nia likes tosing, humming the song that Ranka sang as the theme to Bird-Human. Weirdlythough, Nia says that her father sang that song to her when she was little...and even more weirdly, Ranka affirms that that song is the only memory shehas of her otherwise lost past. The mystery only deepens when Nia says thather father is none other than the king of the Beastmen, the Spiral Lord. Sowhat does _that_ mean??

We'll find out later. For now, Alto gets to take both Sheryl and Ranka out fora bit of joy-flying. The Valkyrie's co*ckpit is a _snug_ fit for three to saythe least, but none of them mind. Ranka wasn't originally supposed to be onvacation just now, but her joint concert with Eiyda in Area Sixteen has beenpostponed due to "regional instability". In fact, Ozuma was the one whosuggested this flight, understanding more keenly than Alto how much the sorrystate of the world must be impacting the singers. Also, Ozuma trusts Alto notto get too hot'n'heavy with the guests... which is more than he could say forKouji or the other starstruck pilots. Sheryl teases Alto a bit about beinginsensitive to all the womanly charms crammed into close quarters with him, andRanka realizes that Sheryl's actually being more serious than she's letting on.

Now, the VF-25 doesn't have a sound system, but with two of the foremostsingers in the world, it doesn't need one: Alto is about to get his own privateconcert from the finest. You can pick whose song to hear, and if you'resmart you'll pick the same singer who you chose before on the CB path. Ineither case, Ranka hopes she can grow to be as forceful as Eiyda, grateful toher for tracking down Dragons' Hive. Eiyda didn't tell Ranka just how sheknew where the Hive is, and Alto imagines that Johnny will be sure to grillEiyda on that when they meet.

In the meantime, the pleasure flight runs into a bit of a snag when a groupof Beastmen attack. Zexis forces will be on the scene shortly, but Alto willhave to hold the fort himself in the meantime. Apparently the Spiral Lordwants to take the singers captive, which will happen over Alto's dead body.This, he figures, is his chance to pay them back for all the times they'vehelped him out.

 Reinforcements arrive soon after, and all the menfolk loudly proclaim how much they're going to pound the bad guys -- presumably in a bid to curry favor with their famous guests. This will be the first battle with the GN Arms, which Setsuna and Lockon will need to be close to the Ptolemy to use. Grace muses that the Beastmen seem to have grasped how powerful songs can be...

 After the Beastmen are dealt with, Invaders show up next and make a beeline for Alto. The R-Daigun suddenly shows up at that point and zooms in to protect, not Alto, but his passengers. This has happened before back in Galia, and Ranka finally voices her suspicion: is the R-Daigun's pilot Eiyda? Eiyda confesses, and confirms that Johnny is one of Dancougar Nova's pilots too. Ryouma cuts them off however, saying that the Invaders come first. Even Grace is worried that the Little Queen's awakening is causing more problems than she feared... unless Sheryl's power is to blame. Nova and the R-Daigun declare a truce for now...

 And a good thing too, since in short order a new foe appears. These new mecha are clearly not of Earth origin, and do not answer to hailing frequencies. Only Banjou, who thinks of them as the long-awaited "lunar emissaries", and Eiyda seem to know who or what they are. Eiyda is intent on fending these new foes off, though they seem to have her outgunned, and she tells the Nova taem that she simply can't afford to lose. Neither can they for that matter, and they steel themselves to charge into the fray and help her.

 That's what Shinobu likes to hear. Final Dancougar appears, and its pilots explain that the feeling the Nova pilots are savoring is the power of Instinct that all Beast pilots share. It's time for them to enter the fray for real: F.S.'s inspiration for Nova, and his hope for the future. Explanations will have to wait, but for now Shinobu gives Aoi a little lesson in how to yell properly: from the bottom of your guts!

When the last enemies fall, Eiyda reconfirms to Johnny that it's really her,apologizes, and flies off. The Final Dancougar folks say there's no need tochase her: if she and Johnny truly walk the same path, they'll surely seeeach other again soon enough. F.S. has told the FD team to stick around thistime, and finish telling their comrades what F.S. began. The "enemies tocome" have, well, come at last.

Eiyda's returned to Zolbrain HQ, where Urajimiel is ready to admit defeat.Ragna's been assassinated and the Trinities are demolished, and that's notcounting how Eiyda hasn't exactly been 100% faithful to her orders. Thenagain, insofar as she managed to get the Nova team to discover God Beast Mode,Eiyda and her R-Daigun have actually fulfilled their mission. And heck, evenEiyda's cover as an idol star seems to have benefitted her more than expected.All this is according to WILL's master plan. Unfortuantely, the PMC Trust haveno use for losers, and have sent some soldiers to tie up loose ends. Urajimiels ready to sacrifice her life to let Eiyda flee and fight another day, butluckily that won't be needed: Sandman is on hand to incapacitate the soldiersand open a path to safety. He tells the ladies that WILL is waiting.

Back at Dragons' Hive, the Final Dancougar folks introduce themselves. Theytoo came to this world thanks to a Quake, but in their case they've been inthis world for several years. F.S. is the person they first met, still intatters after their war with Muge Zolbados, and he spent the intervening timerepairing their machine and caring for their wounds. They actually had toremain in medically-induced comas, and F.S. used the technology from the BeastMachines to make the next generation of super robot to prepare for the nextMuge-like menace to come to the Earth.

There's a deeper method to F.S.' madness though, which explains why he's hadNova always side with the loser in every battle. Nova is tantamount to thelife force of the Earth itself, created by fusing data from countless organismsthe world over. It can, if the need arises, revive every species on Earth...though there were some gaps in the records of the most complex organism: man.F.S. has been seeking pilots for Nova to learn mankind's ways from, as wellas ones capable of invoking its ultimate form of God Beast Mode.

Above all, Earth and its many life forms need more than just a conservancy:they need a guardian, and that's why F.S. needed Nova to practice combat asseriously as possible. _That_ is why he's had the team aiding the losing sidein all those battles. Having said all that, even at its best Nova can't hopeto protect the entire Earth against the worst conceivable foe. It hastherefore been designed as a sort of fortified Noah's Ark, capable of fleeingto space when the Earth finally becomes well and truly untenable. In thatrespect, it fulfills the same role as the far-flung Macross fleets.

Now what about the R-Daigun? F.S. didn't make it; rather, a "comrade" of hisdid. It's mission is like Nova's, and the two were destined to fight andimprove each other, as iron sharpens iron. F.S. neither knows nor cares aboutit* pilot, and says matter-of-factly that Nova has learned enough from Team Dby now to have human-level autopilot. Team D are of course unamused by beingtold this, but F.S. gets to the point: the Earth has a hell of a lot of foesat present. Nova is the only hope that Earth's life forms have for survival.

Aoi tells F.S. to take that rationale and shove it, but Shinobu cuts her offwith an even more impressive rant. He's helped F.S. till now out of gratitudefor saving the team, but that's over now that F.S. has revealed that hebasically expects to lose. The entire Beast Team agree, and transfer theirallegiance from F.S. to Zexis itself. F.S. tells the two Dancougars to dowhatever they want, and as they leave he asks Tanaka if he's now disappointed.Tanaka would never think of criticizing someone higher in the chain ofcommand... and besides, he rather doubts F.S. was being entirely forthrightjust now. WILL weighs in at this point, noting that Team D's toughness alsomakes them prone to inflexible thinking. Mankind _can_ be destroyed. Humans_have_ not only failed to abrogate warfare over their entire history, theirhubris has created menaces like the Imperium. On the other hand, countersF.S., there's much cause for hope -- including the power of Song. Thetrouble is that WILL's counterpart on the moon has evidently swung into action.

The CB's traitor has offered the new Earth Alliance 30 of the GN Drives, whichhave been distributed evenly between the Great Nations. That's not to saythat the _users_ will be the usual suspects; for instance, Zechs' Tallgeesedoesn't need the GN Drive to compete. Graham is high ranking enough that hecould be in line for a new mech, but what he wants instead is to modify one ofhis existing Flag mecha with the new GN Drive -- he's promised Howard Masonthat he'll see this war through with the basic deisgn the Mason made.

CHAPTER 38. A Promise Kept

Elgan is facing a grilling from Corda Ravel about the true identities of the303rd batallion. She's been doing some research into the UN's anti-Emergeefforts, Dewey Sorenstam's work with orphans. Dewey himself was assassinatedin the aftermath of the Tragedy of Dohar, but Corda's learned all about hisuse of those orphans as guinea pigs anyway. Things got messy when she learnedthat the Holland and company that made up the original 303rd, and who are theacknowledged assassins of Dewey, aren't the same Holland and co. that arecurrently out running loose. Somehow this batch managed to trade places withthe 303rd, and Elgan's policy is to keep them where he can see them to avoidany further complications. That's all fine with Corda: what she wants to knowis what's really going on.

In a word, "Neverland". Riddle me this: how can people aging at several timesthe proper rate hope to stay alive? By traveling to a land where kids remainkids forever: a land of frozen time. This Neverland is what Holland andfriends glimpsed during the Tragedy of Dohar, one of the possible outcomes ofthe Dimensional Healing process that remakes worlds. It was DimensionalHealing that led the Emerge to this world, and Holland's party is trying toresurrect the Emerge's creation myth [as it were] to save themselves. Ofcourse, the Dohar unpleasantness has already established that improperly doneDimensional Healing can result in entire worlds being destroyed. Elgun reckonsthat Holland and friends don't care of this world is destroyed, since theycan't exactly live in it in peace anyway. By now they must have joined forceswith the Imperium, in the hopes of using them as a stepping stone to the powerof Myth.

Deep underground in the Vodala Shrine, the shrine maiden has received avisitor. It is Asakim, who won't give a straight answer to the question ofwhether he is a hopeful or hopeless man. She tells him that she knows of him,or rather _knew_ of him and his suffering in a dream. That makes sense, giventhat she was born from "their" lost memories. She suggests that he rest now:surely it is peace he craves, not rage? Just so, yet no matter what world hevisits, he cannot find peace. He tells her to name his tormentor, the onewho plunged him into this Infinite Prison, so he can go kick their ass. The maiden's little companion, (non!-)innocuously named The End, doesn't like thatmuch, yet the maiden says that everyone has a right to the pursuit ofhappiness. She takes up the tail of the angel who helped forge this world,the lost memory of the Emerge...

Back at the Dragons' Hive, the crew are crestfallen to learn that Sheryl hasgone home. Some seem terribly torn between then, and Bobby tells them the bestthey can do is to be true to their feelings. Athena still hasn't come to termswith a man with a woman's heart, even though she's seen the reverse at fairlyclose range. Kei warns Michelle nicely not to exploit Athena's naivete, andafter a little banter the time comes to decide who gets to take Ranka home.You might think that job would naturally fall to Alto, but without Sherylpresent that would be dangerously close to a "date" or something. Klancertainly doesn't have any free space in her mech, and Ozuma can't just skipout on his strategy meetings. Ozuma doesn't trust Crow to not sell Rankaoff to pay his debts, and doesn't trust the long list of bishounen on the teamnot to hit on her either. Maybe Ranka should have some say herself? Thatsounds like a good idea, if she could be found -- at present, she's runningaround in search of her pet. ...Pet??

Said pet is now named Ai-kun, and it's taken an interest of some kind inNirvash. After accidentally startling Ranka, Renton explains that Nirvash isactually alive, and that he and Eureka can converse with it in their hearts.Maybe Ai-kun can too? The other pilots arrive at this point, and Renton'sblatant innocence convinces Ozuma that he's a safe choice for ferrying Rankaback to the nearest town. Ranka is hoping Renton can tell her along the waymore about this "Eureka" and how he hopes to get her back.

Upon arriving, Renton thanks Ranka for asking about Eureka. Talking about herhelps keep his confidence up that he might actually be able to rescue her atsome point. Ranka says that Eureka is lucky to have such a devoted guy as aboyfriend. She can only hope that someone will come to her rescue like that ifshe ever needs it. Which, again, is like TOTALLY non-ominous and whatnot.In any case, Nirvash tells Renton to tell her good luck, and off she goes.

The first thing that happens when Renton is left alone is Holland attackingand knocking him unconscious. The second thing that happens is Crow showingup to stop Holland, the plan all along being to use Renton as an unwittingdecoy to lure Holland out of hiding. The _third_ thing that happens isHolland calling in his own backup to keep Crow busy while he spirits Rentonaway. Margret insists that Crow call her by her proper name instead of"sister", and tells him that she's out for revenge. Revenge for... whatexactly? Of course Crow isn't just going to let her kill him, and even Margretacknowledges that her grudge is misplaced -- still, Crow inadvertently killedthe only little brother she's ever known.

Asakim shows up then, telling the Knight of Insalaum to stay her hand. KillingCrow here certainly wouldn't make Eim happy, as Eim has no doubt made it clearthat he and he alone is allowed to fight Crow directly. Margret marvels atthis man whose presence has even her cowering in fear. He tells her to runalong with a message for Eim: Asakim _will_ claim his soul sooner or later.He even tells her his identity: the Accursed Wanderer, who now knows theidentity of his cursor.

Margret wisely runs off, and Crow tries to offer thanks to Asakim. Asakimsays such things are unnecessary, as he too has his reasons for wanting Crowkept alive. He knows that Margret's talk of revenge has set Crow's "scales"swaying, and doesn't care if Crow is stung by hearing it pointed out to hisface. Asakim names himself as Crow's enemy, assuring him he won't attackCrow now as it would serve no purpose. Asakim has plans to break theeternal Cycle, and tells Crow that he wants Crow's soul as part of the plan.He tells Crow his comrades are headed to the Vodala Shrine, sharing theinformation to make it easier to hunt both Crow and Eim at once. Asakim'spath is illuniated, and now he just has to walk it. Can Crow do likewise?Asakim walks off, leaving Crow furious at himself for being unable to move amuscle. Just what the hell is at the Vodala Shrine that Eim and Asakim,Holland and Renton would be all caught up in it?

Renton has been lefto the none-too-tender mercies of Happ while Holland is outdoing God knows what, and to his credit the little guy is not rolling overeasily. The others caution Happ not to get too carried away, as "Wendy" and"Peter" have to be intact for things to work properly. Renton demands toknow why he and Eureka are so essential to whatever Holland is planning, andStoner overrides Happ's brutality to offer him a straight answer. TheGekkostate's goal is to reach the Neverland they glimpsed back when, as theonly way to extend their foreshortened lifespans. To do that, they mean toreenact the experiment that led to the Tragedy of Dohar, but not the versionthey all suffered through. Instead, they're using the improved version theWarusawa folks came up with: the Mk. 7.e Ammended Myth Recreation Plan, aka"Eureka 7".

Eureka, the Emerge spy robot, has embedded in her a crystal with the passwordfor accessing the Emerge embedded in it. If Eureka can be fused with, the doorto all that pan-dimensional energy can be opened... and Renton is the meansto do it. Stoner adds that Renton and Eureka are in the same boat as theGekkostaters: they've got no choice but to go to Neverland if they want tospend their lives together. He won't say more unless Renton agrees to help.Neverland, by the way, is a world where time is stopped, where "now" lastsforever. Stoner gives Renton 30 minutes to think, and Happ promises moretorture and mind-control drugs if Renton won't help voluntarily. The hell withWendy and Peter, Renton fumes once alone. Why the hell can't he and Eurekabe together?

He gets an unexpected visitor just then: Nirvash in baby form! Nirvash tellshim it's time to go kick some serious ass, which sounds like a tall orderwithout a full-sized mech to pilot. Maybe he'll have some help though, asThe End shows up as well.

The Vodala Shrine itself is actually a surface building, beneath which is aVERY deep base. It's a mausoleum for #6, the peach-haired girl, and the sheerscale of the facility shows how much the powers that be feared #6's powers.Speaking of whom, the shrine maiden appears, whose hair is still perceptiblypeach-colored beneath the gray. She is indeed Dominic's fiancee, Eureka's kinwhich the humans call #6. Her proper name is Anemone, and she's herefulfilling her promise to Dominic, to keep the door sealed against any whowould come to her hopelessly, and to open it gladly for those with hope whosearrival betides the advent of the holy white one. She asks Eureka if she'ssummoned her courage, and tells Eureka why it is that their kind cannot dream.

They themselves are dreams, fictions created by the Emerge's reaction towhat happens inside humans when they sleep. Dominic is the one who stoppedthe experiment back then, fearing to lose his beloved. Even she doesn't knowwhere the Emerge came from or what they're up to... but what she does knowis that dreams will always remain dreams, and reality always reality,whether or not human and Emerge can meet. She offers Eureka no explanation forwhy she, or the Emerge, exist as part of this fearful, hateful world. Butit's true that they live with this world, and die with it.

Anemone reminds Eureka that Eureka has already decided to dream a dream ofher own, and at this point Holland interrupts to demand answers for how tocontrol the Emerge. He won't get to finish his question though, as theEmerge have discovered Eureka's location and sent in troops to get her back.Holland intends to shoot down all the ones near the Vodala Shrine, orderingTalho back to the Gekkoin case she has to evacuate. He doesn't give adamn about anything other than carving out a world for Talho to be safe.

 Zexis shows up in short order, and Holland certainly isn't forthcoming about Renton's whereabouts. The Beast Team are inclined toward doing Holland in first, but the commanders insist that the Emerge must be dealt with first. And beware the Imperium, who might show up at any moment.

 And show up they do! Before fighting Margret, Crow asks how she thinks he killed her younger brother. Eim says that Crow's old unit the Firebugs are responsible, and Crow doesn't attempt to deny it. Eim's loving his reaction, and strikes as the light of the Seventh Maiden is about to pierce the sky. Before Eim can strike Crow, Asakim strikes Eim instead, not quite killing him. Asakim smirks that the False Black Sheep seems to be a bit more Awake than the Swaying Scales, and Eim furiously makes to withdraw. He orders Margret to cover his retreat, but instead she yells out to Crow that Eim is lying to him: her brother challenged Crow fair and square... and lost fair and square too. She tells the infuriated Eim that she won't have her brother's death used as an instrument of foul play, willing to be punished for it later.

 The two withdraw, leaving a passel of DBs behind for the team to grapple with. It's starting to dawn on the team that Eim and Crow are similar in some way, but the top priority must be capturing Asakim. Ah, but not if Asakim claims Crow's soul first! Asakim is about to strike the fatal blow when, out of left field, Amuro and his Fin Funnels intervene. Quatro's with him too, and the two rally the troops to face the new DB menace. Asakim makes good his escape, telling Crow only that his soul is about to become worth Asakim's time to hunt. The ZEUTH people tell Crow there's no need for him to pursue -- they know all too well what Asakim is after. Amuro knows it must be hard for Quatro/Char to take his eyes off the leaders and step onto the battlefield, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

One of the Emerges makes an end run around the team, blasting the Vodala Shrineand interrupting the argument going on between Nirvash and The End in Renton'scell. Renton maybe gets knocked on the head by some debris, and he findshimself dreaming and talking to... Dominic. He apologizes to his formertaecher for not being able to keep his promise about protecting Eureka andgoing to see the snow flowers -- it seems all he can do is keep running away.Is that what he learned these past eight years -- to think only with hishead? Dominic tells Renton that humans are stupid, and their world is theresult of their severely limited imaginations. What the Emerge are is amirror, one that reveals the true form of whoever stands in front of it.Renton knows what he must do with his heart, even if not with his head justyet. As Dominic vanishes, he leaves Renton with one final word to helpsupport him and his lovably awkward way of life.

Renton emerges from the rubble, shouting out that to him who asks, shall itbe given. He's coming for Eureka, Emerge be damned, and Nirvash abruptlyreturns to its full-grown form to help. Reaching her, he proclaims hislove for her at the top of his lungs, and says he wants to win their futuretogether. Hard to turn that sort of proposal down, right? Anemone observesthat the two of them are about to surpass the laws governing the world, andin the meeting of their eyes shall the white holy one be born. Holland isfurious, pointing out that unless he can recreate the Myth he's going to die,and Anemone tells him to stop being such a whining bitch. Maybe he can, Idunno, invent his _own_ goddamn myth for a change? That's what Renton andEureka are doing at any rate.

This seems beyond Holland's comprehension, and the only option he sees left isto go beg Eim for help. At least Renton and Eureka are safely beck together,and never to be parted again! With a bit of power of love stuff, the remaininghorde of bad guys don't stand a chance, and that paves the way for theobligatory "why'd you risk yourself for me?? 'cause I'm an idiot and I'm inlove" reunion speeches. Renton may be a dunce, but he's _Eureka_'s dunce.

Eureka then fills the team in on her real mission as a Emerge spybot. Withinher, or so she's heard, is a crystal that's been recording everything she'sseen and experienced in this world. The people in the lab said that theEmerge crave this data, presumably to help pinpoint humanity's weak spots andfacilitate their ultimate downfall. Eureka is _not_ interested in seeingmankind obliterated, and only went along with Holland in the hopes that Zexis'counterattack would result in her death. That would eliminate the Emergethreat to humanity, and the Gekkostate threat to Renton. Of course, she's withthe stalwarts of Zexis now, and the whole team pledge to fight to keep thetwo safe and sound. Anemone too gives them her and her beloved's blessing,and the ZEUTH folks are tickled pink that the little spitfire they know isgoing to grow up to be such an adorable grandmotherly type.

With the lovey-dovey stuff out of the way, the question turns to just whatthese "Firebugs" did to become so notorious. The Firebugs were a special unitcomposed of the scum of the Brittania Union, and Crow would rather notremember all the bad stuff he was mixed up in as one of them. Rather, he wantsto know what it is the ZEUTH members know about why Asakim is after him.Roger asks first whether Crow's noticed any physical anomalies of late, andupon finding out that all is normal muses that there's still time to turn back.

The "VX" in Crow's mech must actually be what the ZEUTH know as a Sphere, amysterious generator of vast capacity. Asakim has a history of seeking thelives of those capable of activating Spheres, which Crow hasn't yet completelymanaged. That _potential_ is why Asakim has kept him alive till now, bidinghis time till conditions are right. The Spheres ZEUTH has encountered to datewere keyed off "Sorrow" and "Wounds", belonging respectively to the Maiden ofSorrows (Setsuko) and the Wounded Lion (Rand). Since Eim and Asakim keepcalling Crow the Swaying Scales, it's rational believe that something about"Swaying" is the key to Crow's Sphere... though exactly what is anyone's guess.

It all fits for Crow now: he's being fattened for the slaughter by Crow, andtargeted for mayhem by fellow Sphere-owner Eim. Nobody has been able to workout just why Asakim needs to kill active Sphere users, but in the "smarter thanhe looks" category, Kouji has just noticed a pattern in the noun portion of allthese sobriquets: they're all constellations of the Zodiac!

Roger tells Crow that every Sphere-user seems to undergo various sorts ofphysiological change as their powers begin to active: loss of their fivesenses, heightened pain sensitivity, or other oddities. Crow clearly hasn'tawakened fully yet, but like the other Sphere-users, he has no intention ofdismounting from his mech now. Granted, his insistence on repaying his debtsis the oddest reason yet for risking Asakim's tender mercies, but that alsospeaks well of Crow's faithful character. He does promise that he's going toleave the Blaster behind once his debts are repaid and the Imperium overthrown.

Then there's Amuro and friends, who've been hanging out with the AEU'smastermind Treize. The G boys figured out that Treize and Schneider have beenplanning all sorts of stuff in secret, with backing from the RomfellarConglomerate. Treize wanted their input on world events, as neutral observersfrom another world, and is in Amuro's estimation a "complicated" individual.He does seem sincerely interested in guiding the world to a better place, andespecially in taking down the Imperium.

The G boys flat out don't trust Treize, or Schneider for that matter,suspecting them of colluding in secret while pitting their armies against eachother in the open. Treize even has ties to the PMC Trust, whose status as acivilian defense contractor makes an outright assault hard to justify to thepublic. Duo thinks it's worth risking a bit of public indignation to avoid thePMC gaining a dangerous advantage, and wouldn't you know it, an old friend ofKiriko has just phoned in with the location of the Red Shoulders' secret base.This sounds like the perfect link to finally bring the PMC down, especially ifthe "secret base" is sold to the public as a "terrorist hideout". As theteam marshalls for launch, Quatro excuses himself to go rest up. What must hebe thinking after his time with Treize?

This comrade-in-arms of Kiriko's must be a former Red Shoulder himself, andhe's offered to join up with the team for the assault. There's every hopethat the Perfect Soldier lady will be at this base, Kiriko's would-begirlfriend and seemingly the Astrageus folks' trump card. The base itselfis a logistical nightmare, and only M-class and below mecha will fit. Havingto face the Red Shoulders head-on with only the small mecha sounds dangerous...

CHAPTER 39. The Last Red Shoulder

The mission has received official UN clearance as an armed negotiation, butof course there's about a 274% chance of combat erupting. On the eve of themission to save his girlfriend, Kiriko is as inscrutible as ever on thesurface. Beneath it though, he's thinking back to his sordid past and theBattle of Sasan -- a past he must confront if he, Fiana and his old war buddiesare to have any future at all. Those buddies are Gregor, Murza and Beimann,and the first thing Beimann does is try to hit on Karen (bad move). Zeroand Gregor get their folks to calm down, and it becomes quickly clear thatthese guys have a serious bone to pick with the remaining Red Shoulders.

The men explain that they were considered misfits even within the RedShoulders, and given a variety of menial tasks as punishment from theirsuperiors. Kiriko's tasks ultimately took him to that fateful day on Reed,Gregor's got him filled full of lead, and Murza came back from one missionto find his whole family killed (on the pretext that he divulged detais ofthe operation to the enemy). Beimann is coy about his own mistreatment, butthe point is that all of them have axes to grind. And the prime target ofthat axe is Yoran Perzen, the Red Shoulder's founder.

Perzen's role in Kiriko's life came up when he was assigned to the Barkoffdetachment, named for its captain and his rumored history of cowardice in theface of the enemy. There was Godan "Grim Reaper" Shirasco, Kochack the Coward,Zaki the Lunatic, and Kiriko -- a seemingly random group of lame-asses who wereactually put together according to Perzen's master plan. It was them on thefrontmost lines of the invasion of Monad, a planetessimal outfitted as oneenormous fortress, shortly before the Quake that ferried Kiriko here.

Kiriko's past assignment to the infamous Red Shoulders came up as the Barkoffforces reached the very core of the enemy fortress. Kiriko protested thathe didn't enter the Red Shoulders because he wanted to; rather, he was putthere for observation as part of Perzen's research into "Abnormal Survivors":beings with the one in 25 billion genetics needed to live through damn nearanything. Just _how_ an Abnormal Survivor survives isn't important; they canbe super tough or super good at running from trouble, or whatever -- and isn'tit interesting that the lowly Barkoff squad's members have all managed to livethrough some pretty harrowing stuff?

The Barkoff folks' initial skepticism gave way to belief, but as enemy forcesapproached Kiriko warned them not to get co*cky: even Abnormal Survivors bleedif pricked. That said, you should have every Bargoff squad member kill atleast one opponent to set a flag for later use.

 Sure enough, the squad got overconfident after downing the first wave of bad guys, and succumbed in short order to the second wave. As Barkoff's mech sustained fatal damage, he ordered Kiriko and Zaki to flee if they're able. He grinned that apparently neither he nor the first two casualties were Abnormal Survivors after all, and said that this operation is a total failure. Kiriko and Zaki made it to the space dock even as the "Quent" technology powering the base begins to tear it apart.

Zaki wasn't in a good way by this point, having grappled with an inexplicabledesire to kill Kiriko ever since he first saw him. Kiriko guessed thatsomeone did something to Zaki's brain, and urged the guy to fight againstthe instinct making him pull the trigger. Zaki pleads with Kiriko to liveon, and to take care of whoever did this -- whoever it is who wants Kirikodead -- in Zaki's stead. Zaki took his own life instead of Kiriko's, and though Kiriko couldn't know directly who was responsible, there's prettystrong circ*mstantial evidence that Perzen was behind it all.

If you got the flag set, Kiriko will get his mech tuned up by his mates.They warn Zero that the Red Shoulders are likely to call in reinforcementsonce they're cornered, and those reinforcements are rumored to include someGundams. BINGO: this is the proof needee to link the Red Shoulders to the CBs'traitor. Gregor and friends don't care who's backing their targets, so eagerto fight that they start fighting each other... before, that is, the reasonfor Beimann's grudge becomes clear. He lost an arm to the Red Shoulder'streachery and hid it from the others, but Kiriko's keen eyes can't be deceivedso easily. Beimann professes that he's still more than healthy enough tohelp take his hated foes down. Kiriko knows that joining his old comradesand reentering the hell of his memories is the only way to save Fiana.

Elsewhere, Fiana (aka Proto One) welcomes Upsilon into the world. She's beengiven care of the new PS by Aaron and Gran, who are confident that this timethey've gotten Upsilon's combat programming perfected. What's needed tocomplete his training is socialization and decision-makign skills, which arebest learned from interactions with a female. Whatever Proto One's faults maybe, she's perfect for this task in their view. Perzen himself shows up toinsist on Proto One's involvement, but just then Fiana approaches them witha concern of her own.

Since the PS's are born to be soldiers, wouldn't it be better for them toremain apart from human contact? Isn't human interaction, such as sheexperienced from her contact with Kiriko, only going to make them sad down theroad? Perzen tells Fiana to stop lying to herself, and says he's curious tosee whether love, that most fickle of emotions, can make a human transcendhuman limitations. He's spent half his life honing his Red Shoulders into themightiest humans he could, and yet somehow Kiriko slipped through the cracks inhis system. Always suspicious, always resistant to others' leadership, Kirkodisplayed all the classic human weaknesses and yet has proven the strongesthuman of all. And though Perzen hates to admit it, all his resentment ofKiriko and all his schemes to have him killed have come to nought.

His conclusion is that ideal soldiers cannot come from ordinary men. He hopesthat if Upsilon can learn to act on judgement, not instinct, as Fiana can,he'll become an even greater warrior than Kiriko. Perzen wants Upsilon tofight and kill Kiriko, saying that Kiriko must die by human hands or not atall. Riemann reports that Perzen's bait has led Zexis to them, and Sarcheswon't complain about having his prey come to him. Perzen goes to spectateon the battle, intending to see his sponsor's wishes for Zexis' destructionfulfilled. He will keep Upsilon out of this battle, preparing for theunlikely possibility that Kiriko actually lives through this.

 Upsilon is close to going berserk at the sight of the battle, and Fiana tells him that he'll have to come to terms with this sooner or later. But before actualizing his programmed battle instincts, he needs to know about something else first: love! That doesn't compute for him, and it's all Fiana can do to restrain the kid from running off and joining the battle.

 The death of Riemann is more than Upsilon can stand, and he dashes onto the battlefield. He doesn't respond to hailing frequencies, and his motions are clearly those of a PS. Kiriko is sent to deal with him, and he wonder if it is Fiana at the controls -- if so, does she not recognize him? Kiriko realizes quickly that it's not Fiana, but another being like her. Upsilon can do no better than getting his ass kicked, and he flees before sustaining fatal damage. Kiriko starts to follow, then becomes aware that Perzen himself is watching. It is to be a battle between Kiriko and Perzen's ideals, and for a change both sides are actually talkative with each other (trash talk to be sure, but hey). Upsilon unexpectedly charges back onto the field, swayed by his instincts to try to kill Kiriko.

 He doesn't finish the job at once, and as Perzen yells at him to fire, Fiana emerges and yells at him to stop. She'll give her own life to save Kiriko's if she has to, which is what Love is all about. Maybe, just _maybe_ Perzen made an error in entrusting Upsilon to her tutelage, and Upsilon is frozen in agony between the two conflicting orders. Perzen decides to kill Kiriko himself at this point, but Kiriko's mates are having none of that. They fill Perzen full of lead, and with him dies the last of the Red Shoulders as a coherent unit.

What sucks is how Upsilon grabs Fiana and runs off, leaving Kiriko to go backinto power-save mode till a new plan can be hatched. Meanwhile Perzen'sfollower Rocchina laments Perzen's death, and thinks of the new god he's found-- a mind even greater than Perzen's capable of altering even the fate of anAbnormal Survivor such as Kiriko. He pledges to use the full resources of thisnew secret society to ensure that this time, Kiriko's fate will be sealed.

The base has been pretty well sanitized of useful clues about the CB's traitor,but the nature of the battle itself revealed much. This person, this TRAITOR,is more dangerous than a hundred legions of Sardukar. In league with theUN, in cahoots with arms merchants and rogue mercenaries, and with access toall the CBs' secrets, the world would seem to be this person's oyster. Whatlittle data Zero is able to resurrect shows that Perzen and his men weremerely instruments of a larger conspiracy, the same one that stole the PS'sfrom the Gilgamesh army and used the Shinjuku Ghetto as a laboratory forgathering combat data via the "peacekeeping" forces.

The conspiracy is called, literally enough, the Secret Society. No, really.Perzen's liason seems to be someone well-connected with the UN, and if itreally is the same person as the CB's traitor, really is someone capable ofuniting the Three Nationa in this new Earth Federation, could it possiblybe... Elgan himself?

Back at the Secret Society's base, Gregor and friends are a bit amazed to stillbe alive. They were prepared to die, but as Beimann so aply puts it, thosemost concerned for their own life are those most likely to lose it. Thethree guys intend to head to Area Eleven and make names for themselve asBattlers in Goat's stable, and ask if Kiriko wants to come along. Nothingdoing: he's still got to fight for Fiana. They part ways with a minimum ofgoodbyes, which is what Crow describes to Karen as the "male" way. In fact,Kiriko is feeling pretty lonely with his comrades taking off and his womanin the hands of Perzen's sponsors. His path through fire and war looks likelyto continue for some time.

Asakim has come back for another chat with Elgan, in a pretty good mood dueto the discovery of two Sphere-bearers in this world. Elgan proclaims thathe won't tell Asakim what to do, but both of them know that Elgan really wantsAsakim's power for his cause. Asakim gives him a little tip that there'sabout to be a major upheaval, and Elgan knows right away that he's talkingabout the Saotome lab. Asakim feels the heartbeat of one there who willsummon the end of this world...

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