Mobile Suit Gundam SEED TWILIGHT

Note: Spot the Team Four Star reference to become An Hero.

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Phase 46 - Emily

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The smoke from the GOUF billowed up around the motionless Twilight Gundam as the late Robinson's reinforcements approached. Inside the Guul-mounted Blaze ZAKU Phantom at their head, the mustachioed commander ground his teeth at the sight of the GOUF's wreckage. So much for Commander Robinson. And they had counted on him to lead the attack. Down below, he could see one of the submarines, the Irenaeus, surfacing to provide support. At least he had that to count on.

"Th-that thing took out Commander Robinson," someone started.

"Cut the chatter," the commander ordered. "All units form up, and open fire at once!"

Missiles, beams, and machinegun fire flashed and pounded around the Twilight, throwing a pall of smoke around it. The commander tensed, waiting for a sign of life inside the cloud—

...and instead his ZAKU got a blast of smoke in its face, as the Twilight blasted out of the cloud and activated its beam wings with a flash.

"Impossible!" one of his wingmen shouted. "We hit that bitch with everything we had!"

"Break formation!" screamed the commander. "All units, split up— "

The Twilight charged with a flash of exhaust, a beam saber shining to life in its right hand, and whirled around its first victim, a hapless Guul-mounted GuAIZ, in a blur of afterimages. The GuAIZ raised its rifle to retaliate, but too late, as the Twilight sawed it in two at the waist and effortlessly continued on its way. The commander wheeled around in disbelief, letting loose a salvo from his beam rifle— but the Twilight fouled his shots with a blur and dove down towards its next target. The Gunner ZAKU Warrior leveled off its long-range cannon; the Twilight slammed its feet down onto the ZAKU's Guul, throwing off its aim, and impaled it through the cockpit with its saber before taking off again.

"I can't get a lock on her— what the— ?!" The line from one of the DINNs abruptly cut out, the Twilight ripping it in two with a casual saber swipe as it passed by.

The commander in his ZAKU ground his teeth; three men killed in less than a minute? "Keep away from her!" he ordered. "All units scatter and aim for the flanks! Fire!"

The Twilight whirled around, beam shield flashing to life as the remaining mobile suits threw everything they had at its shimmering foe. Another pall of smoke rose up—

Instead, the commander yelped in surprise as the Twilight blasted from the smoke, seized his mobile suit by its head, and then slammed it down into the Irenaeus' hull with a roar of engines. The Twilight drove its saber through the cockpit, then tore open the ship's hull with a powerful saber hack and smashed the sparking ZAKU in headfirst, and leapt off as it exploded and tore the ship open.

Up above, the pilot of one of the surviving BABIs froze in horror. "She...she took out the Irenaeus! There's no fucking way she could have— " He went silent; the Twilight ripped his mobile suit in two and continued on as it exploded.

A Guul-mounted CGUE darted down into the Twilight's path, sword raised high, and brought it down with a crash— but the blade cut through only an afterimage as the Twilight whirled around its silver opponent and slammed its left hand clear through the CGUE's back and out its chest. A GuAIZ R up above lined up for a railgun salvo; the Twilight turned again, hurling the impaled CGUE into its path and letting it get blown apart by its own comrade's shots. An instant later, the smoke burst apart and the Twilight charged through to cut the GuAIZ in half.

Two Slash ZAKU Warriors lunged up on either side of the Twilight, leveling off their rifles— but the sky cracked in two as the Twilight instead fired both of its heat rods into the two machines' torsos, then yanked them in and ripped them both in half with a blindingly fast saber swipe. The smoke parted as the Twilight rose up into the air, beam wings glimmering in the sun.

The remaining three mobile suits darted apart, leveling off beam rifles and filling the air with fire. The Twilight danced effortlessly between their shots, lighting up the sky with afterimages— and, an instant later, it shot towards its next prey, a Guul-mounted GINN High Maneuver II, and drove its left hand clear through the mobile suit's torso. The Twilight whipped around, darting by another salvo from the two survivors and watching as they backed away. One of them, a Gunner ZAKU Warrior, took aim with its long-range cannon for a finishing blow— only for the Twilight to lunge into its face, rip its Guul in two, and then tear the mobile suit in half.

Before the survivor— a lone BABI desperately firing into the unstoppable afterimages— had time to react, the Twilight was there to slash it in two at the waist.

Inside the Twilight, Emily snapped her eyes to the right and immediately hurled her mobile suit backward, dodging a huge pulsing beam from the ocean's surface. There was a warship down there, a Petrie-class battleship flinging machinegun rounds and beam fire into the sky, under the escort of four more BABI mobile suits.

On the ship's bridge, the captain of the Veracruz leapt out of his seat and pointed furiously at the Gundam and its shimmering wings of light. That thing had taken out twelve mobile suits in less than four minutes— but perhaps with enough firepower... "Shoot that thing down! All missiles, fire!"

The world shook as the Veracruz fired its entire complement of missiles towards the Twilight. Emily narrowed her eyes at the projectiles as they came closer, and a white flash split the air—

...and the captain of the Veracruz could only stare in disbelief as the Twilight swung its left arm skyward and the missiles arced up towards the sun.

"There's no way she could have done that!" he screamed. "That was thirty-two missiles! How could they have all failed at once?!" The Twilight's eyes flashed and the Gundam charged. The captain backed away in horror. "The BABIs! Get David's team here!"

With a burst of exhaust, the four BABIs put themselves between the Veracruz and the Twilight, letting loose a withering salvo of firepower. Emily ground her teeth and snarled at them.

"Are you not afraid enough?" she growled— and with a crash, she rammed her saber through the cockpit of the first one; the second one lined itself up for a beam cannon blast, only for the Twilight to hurl its broken comrade at it and let them both die in a fiery explosion; the third darted away from the blast, only to be chopped in two by the Twilight's beam saber. The last one leveled off both its guns and opened fire, only for the Twilight to effortlessly swat aside the beams and plow its saber through the BABI's chest.

Down below, the Veracruz's captain gasped as the Twilight blasted out of the smoke and kept coming.

"SHOOT HER DOWN!"

Emily glowered down at the desperate warship, the horror from its bridge washing over her. "Well?" One of the ship's beams came streaking towards her, only for the Twilight to bat aside the blast with its beam saber. "Don't you guys fear me?!"

The Twilight shook as it ducked aside from another cannon blast, and Emily's eyes flashed in fury as she saw her opportunity.

"Then I'll make you fear me!"

With a scream of thrusters and twisting metal, the Twilight somersaulted over the next salvo and came smashing down onto the Veracruz's deck, stabbing cleanly through its beam cannon and ripping it off in a cloud of fire. The black Gundam paused for an instant to glower into the ship's bridge, before rocketing off the wounded ship's deck—

...just as the ship's own missiles came pounding back onto the Veracruz from above, and the vessel disappeared beneath a thunderous explosion.

In the sky, with the Twilight's beam wings shining in the sun, Emily watched as the lives on the Veracruz vanished, and turned her eyes towards her next target.

This is what your mercy looks like...

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Shinn blinked in surprise as he felt a hundred lives disappear and the world began to shake. He tossed a quick glance to his left, where a towering plume of smoke and fire heralded the death of one of Argus's ships.

"Well, that didn't take long," he started— and turned his attention back at the urging of his instinct as the three DOMs barreled at him again. "Oh, not this again!"

The three DOMs darted apart, with Herbert and Mars showering the Destiny with firepower as Hilda charged in close, beam saber held high. Shinn ground his teeth, thrusting his sword forward and spoiling Hilda's strike— but an instant later, the DOM jetted to the left, making way for Herbert and Mars to pummel him again with bazooka shells.

"Dammit is that annoying!" Shinn snarled, lunging into the air.

He snapped his attention up as the instinct screamed, just in time for Hilda's DOM to pound him with a kick from one of its massive feet. The Destiny reeled back toward the sea; Hilda plunged after him, saber raised.

"Now die!"

Shinn's eyes flashed, and he seized his chance; the Destiny's engines roared to life, and with a crash he smashed his machine into the DOM headfirst, knocking it backwards. His teeth shook as he drove the Destiny's sword down against the DOM's saber, hurling it back towards the sea, and with a flash the Destiny somersaulted over its foe and ducked beneath another salvo from Herbert and Mars.

Such a well-coordinated attack! Shinn tensed as he watched the DOMs move in around their floundering comrade. Their discipline must be— wait a minute...

"And not too many people can say they've survived two Jetstream Attacks," Mars chuckled, moving in as Herbert helped Hilda's DOM back to its feet. "I'll admit, I'm mildly impressed."

"Mildly, huh?" Shinn shot back. "Well, don't let me stop you from underestimating me."

Hilda's DOM moved back to the fore, monoeye and beam saber blazing. "Don't think your reputation is going to save you, traitor. Killing those pathetic Naturals in the Alliance doesn't mean you can defeat the three of us. We're the Razor Trinity!"

Shinn merely grinned back. "Can we get on with this? Because all I'm hearing at this point is 'We suck, Shinn! Please kill us! Our little Jetstream Attack is just so lame!'"

"That's it!" screamed Herbert, lining up with Mars to open fire with their Gigalaunchers. "Mouthy little prick!"

Shinn merely smiled, even as he sent the Destiny twisting around their shots.

Come on guys, one little fuckup, that's all I need...

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"The last time I fought one of you," snarled Athrun at the Guul-mounted GINN High Maneuver II in front of him, "was Junius 7. And I was fighting my father's ghost too." The GINN charged and brought its saber down with a crash onto the Infinite Justice's beam shield. "Funny how these things just seem to repeat themselves!"

The Justice surged forward, pushed the GINN's sword to the sky with its shield, and ran it through on its beam saber. Athrun darted to the side as it exploded, scanning the skies for his next target.

Up above, the Savior rushed by in its mobile armor mode, followed by a trio of BABIs with guns blazing. Athrun lunged up into their path and ripped one of them out of the sky with a screech of torn metal. The other two whirled around to open fire— only for the Savior to revert to its mobile suit mode and blast them both apart with a plasma cannon salvo.

"You make the best of friends, man," Viveka said, and rubbed her temples tiredly. "How many are— "

"Split up!" Athrun shouted, and kicked the Savior in the chest, knocking both mobile suits apart just as a pair of blazing green beams shot through the sky between them. "What the— ?!"

Every panel in the Justice rattled as a blue mobile suit on a Guul brought down a blazing beam sword against the Justice's beam shield, flinging it backward. Athrun scanned over the enemy in disbelief.

"What the hell is that thing?" started Viveka.

Athrun grunted as the mobile suit pounded his beam shield with a furious volley of shots. "The CGUE DEEP Arms. Prototype ZAFT MS with experimental beam weaponry. Those guys must be more desperate than I thought."

The DEEP Arms charged again, showering the Justice with beam blasts. Athrun narrowed his eyes, blocking the shots with his shield— and just as the DEEP Arms entered range to use its sword, he threw the Justice beneath its horizontal swing, and ripped off its right arm at the elbow with his Grapple Stinger. An instant later, the Savior was there to put a beam shot through its cockpit.

As the smoke cleared, Athrun tossed the CGUE's beam sword to the Savior.

"What's this for?" Viveka asked, glancing up at Athrun.

"We're taking out one of those ships." He cast a glare towards the Vasquez, pouring firepower into the air after the Minerva. "No more of this shit."

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"Monterrey is 300 at seven o'clock!" cried Burt from the sensor console. "Heat signatures rising!"

"Malik, hard to port! Bring us around!" Meyrin ordered. The Minerva groaned in protest as it wheeled around to face the Monterrey on the ocean's surface. The Lesseps-class ship opened fire with a withering beam cannon salvo that sizzled past the Minerva's portside wing.

"Those other two ships have pulled away," Abbey began. "What could they up to..."

"We'll find out after we've destroyed this one," Meyrin replied. "Parsifal, fire! CIWS, target and fire in ten seconds!"

The missiles took off with a roar, and as they arced back down towards the Monterrey the Minerva's CIWS blasted them out of the sky, throwing a pall of smoke over the water. Meyrin ground her teeth as the Minerva nosed down towards the water, dodging another salvo from the Monterrey.

"Tristan, Isolde, fire!"

Booming through the smoke, the Minerva's portside Tristan and Isolde cannon pounded the Monterrey's port side, blowing off the ship's stern-mounted beam cannon. Meyrin suppressed the urge to smile— the job wasn't done yet.

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Up ahead, Emily could see a second Petrie-class ship, guns blazing as two mobile suits circled it. The Infinite Justice and the Savior, the latter wielding an enormous sword, were trying to sink the Vasquez— but a blazing salvo of beam shots from the heavens sent them both scattering on the defensive. Two mobile suits came roaring out of the sky; Emily vaguely recognized them from Shinn's training as one-off prototypes built by ZAFT, captured by the Alliance, and then recaptured by the ZAFT remnants.

She armed the beam saber and threw open the throttle. No matter what they were, they were going to die.

The two newcomers split up, raking both sides of the Twilight with beam fire. Emily flicked her eyes between them both— one a bright red GOUF with a huge claw on its left arm, the other a blindingly yellow GuAIZ with what looked like the Infinite Justice's Fatum on its back. Both of them opened fire— the Twilight darted around their shots effortlessly.

"Emily!" Viveka's voice exclaimed. "Where have you been? We— " She fell short as Emily chose her first kill, lunging towards the GOUF with bared teeth. "Wait a minute, what are you— "

The GOUF rocketed skywards and showered the Twilight with beam fire, but to no avail; its shots passed harmlessly through afterimages and with a crash, the Twilight ripped the GOUF's beam rifle from its hand and hurled it towards the sea. The red mobile suit drew back; Emily's instinct screamed within her, and the Twilight leapt into the air as the GuAIZ opened fire with a flurry of beam shots and railgun shells.

Inside the Savior, Viveka watched in disbelief as Emily effortlessly dodged everything her enemies threw at her. "What...what's going on? Athrun, she's acting differently again!"

Athrun ground his teeth, a hand over his throbbing temple. "It's like Volgograd and Novorossiysk...something's snapped in her, and that training of hers is kicking in."

Up above, the GOUF whirled a massive hammer over its head and swung it towards the Twilight, but caught only an afterimage. The black Gundam darted away, dodging past another volley from the GuAIZ. With a groan of protesting metal, the GOUF brought its hammer to bear, swinging it down towards the Twilight's stomach.

Instead of connecting, the Twilight lunged over the hammer's head, slicing off the heat rod and sending the hammer plummeting down towards the sea. The GOUF backed away; the Twilight was there in an instant, stabbing it through the left arm and destroying its claw. The wounded mobile suit staggered back—

A moment later, the Twilight seized the GOUF by the chest plate with its left hand and rocketed down towards the Vasquez.

"Emily, what are you doing?!" Viveka cried. "Wait— !"

The air filled with a hideous screech as the Twilight drove the GOUF down into the Vasquez's bridge tower. A plume of smoke and fire rose up from the ruined machine, and the Twilight vaulted off the stricken vessel's deck— and a moment later, the GOUF exploded and the Vasquez snapped in three.

Viveka stared in disbelief as the Twilight turned its attention towards the GuAIZ.

"What the hell happened to her...?"

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Shuddering under the pressure of water and weapons, the hull of the submarine before the Abyss finally split open beneath the mobile suit's lance. Water gushed into the wound, and the Abyss pushed the gash open further. It would fill with water long before the damage-control systems could take effect, and that would be that. Auel sat back in the cockpit to admire his handiwork for a moment— served the bastards right, after all.

"That about takes care of the Vanderbilt," Sting's voice announced. "Now for the other one— "

Auel snapped his gaze to the left, where the murky hulk of the second warship was already launching more mobile suits. Sting and Stella could handle them— and judging by the flashing knife blade, Stella was already getting to work.

The Abyss transformed back into mobile armor mode and darted towards the second ship, the Carnegie. This was how to move underwater; nice sleek hydrodynamic form, with all kinds of firepower hidden inside.

A swarm of torpedoes rushed forward from the Carnegie. Auel twisted between them, ignoring the shockwave as they detonated behind him, and charged head-on towards the ship's thin midsection, where the mobile suit deck was joined to the engines. With metal screeching and sparks flying, the Abyss transformed, slammed its lance into the ship's side, and tore a long gash open in the hull. The Abyss rattled and Auel winced at the noise even as he widened the opening, seawater pouring in. And with a final, bone-jarring shriek, he pounded a quartet of cannon shells into the ship's exposed innards, ripping it in two with a burst of fire.

As the Carnegie disappeared into the depths, Auel glanced back up at the Chaos and Gaia. As impressive as his handiwork was— and his handiwork, after all, never failed to impress— he supposed that those two still needed saving.

And Auel Neider was nothing if not charitable.

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"Why won't you die?!" roared Herbert as his DOM Trooper poured firepower after the Destiny. Hilda's DOM rushed in behind the winged Gundam, saber held wide for a killing horizontal slash— but the Destiny whirled around, deflecting the blow with a powerful sword stroke and knocking the DOM aside. Shinn cracked a grin, taking off and dodging again as Mars and Herbert traced his flight path with beam blasts.

"I don't know where you three got your reputation from," Shinn cackled. "I mean, I've fought Alliance grunts better than you guys."

"You little bastard!" Mars cried; Shinn smirked back. Finally, I got through to that one. Now...

"You have a lot of gall to say that, race-traitor!" Hilda screamed, her DOM jetting in between the Destiny and Mars. "You cost us victory at Arzachel, and after that— "

"Hey, I distinctly remember it was not me who screwed the war up for ZAFT," Shinn shot back. "And it's not my fault you guys were incompetent."

"Son of a bitch!" snarled Herbert. "Hilda, come on! I've had it with this punk!"

Hilda nodded, fixing Shinn with a furious glare. "No more games, Traitor Asuka! You're going down!"

Herbert and Mars' DOMs lined up behind her.

"JETSTREAM ATTACK!"

Shinn smirked as they came charging towards him.

Man, and I only asked for a little fuckup...

Time slowed as Shinn let the instinct guide his hands. With a roar of engines, he closed the distance between himself and the DOMs, somersaulted up, and slammed his Gundam's left hand through the DOM's chest. He flung the ruined mobile suit to the left and drove his sword forward, impaling the second DOM clear through the cockpit, and then hurled the second DOM to the right. The third one reared up, bazooka at the ready— only for Shinn to drive his left-hand palm cannon through the DOM's chest, and throw his final prey to the side.

Inside her wrecked, sparking DOM, Hilda painfully cracked open her eye and cast her gaze towards the victorious Destiny, floating over the ocean's surface with beam wings alight.

"Of all the people...why'd we have to lose to you?!"

The three DOMs finally exploded in a thunderous chain of blasts, and Shinn glanced over his shoulder as the three lives inside flickered and vanished. "Should've been a little more creative than that."

The Destiny stowed its sword as Shinn scanned the battlefield. His little tangle with the Razor Trinity had separated him from most of the fighting, but there was still work to do, and the Destiny took off with a flash.

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The Legend Gundam spiraled effortlessly through a field of firepower from two desperate Slash ZAKU Warriors, both deprived of their Guul units and standing on the deck of the smoking Monterrey. Their ship had taken a few hits from the Minerva already, but it was still moving and still had most of its armaments blazing— but that was easily solved.

The Monterrey quaked as the Legend came crashing down onto its deck. Rau grinned and let loose a storm of beam blasts from his DRAGOONs, and the Monterrey's two mobile suits and its beam guns vanished in a pair of plumes of fire.

From the flames, the Legend stalked forward towards the ship's bridge tower. Rau threw a switch on the cockpit console and put on his most sinister smirk as a disbelieving Argus appeared on his auxiliary screen.

"C-Commander Le Creuset...you...you've betrayed us too?!" Fury flashed onto Argus's face, momentarily overshadowing the fear. "Even the White Knight of ZAFT— "

"I'm sorry, Argus," Rau laughed and shrugged, "but I can't let you go destroying the Minerva right now."

"Why the hell not?!" Argus roared. "Don't you understand what they did to us?!"

Rau sniffed contemptuously. "You did this to yourselves, Argus. Far be it from me to point out your folly to you, but Lord Djibril is trying to exterminate us Coordinators. And more importantly," his wicked grin returned, "I've got plans, and you don't fit into them."

"What could be more important than protecting our people?!" snarled Argus.

The Legend pointed its beam rifle straight at the Monterrey's bridge tower. The color vanished from a horrified Argus's face.

"I don't expect you to understand," Rau said, "and I'd rather prefer you didn't. Goodbye, Argus."

The Legend fired and Argus vanished in a blaze, and Rau turned and vaulted the Legend back into the air as the smoking Monterrey shuddered to a halt— just as the Minerva finished it off with a volley from its Tristans.

Now then, little Angel of Death, I believe you're learning a lesson somewhere around here...

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With a bloodcurdling scream from its pilot, the Twilight sliced down like a hawk and ripped the beam rifle from the yellow GuAIZ's hand. It immediately jetted backward, opening fire with the beam cannons on its backpack; the Twilight ducked aside and charged again, beam saber in hand.

"Are you afraid of me yet?!"

Sparks flew and the sky lit up as the Twilight slammed its saber down onto the GuAIZ's own blade. The GuAIZ ignited a pair of blades on the end of its shield and swept down at the Twilight's waist, but caught only afterimages. Instead, up above, the Twilight came plummeting down and sliced off the GuAIZ's left arm and shield with a punishing downward hack, sending the severed limb sailing away. The GuAIZ backed away, staring momentarily at the molten end of its arm— before the Twilight was upon it again, beam sabers clashing.

"You think you can just come here and kill my friend?!"

The GuAIZ reeled from a devastating knee to the abdomen, followed up by an earth-shattering kick to the chest. It opened fire with its beam cannons again as it pitched backward, only to catch more afterimages— and in an instant later, the Twilight was there to throw it backwards again with another saber strike.

"You think you can come here and beg me for mercy?!"

Backing away, the GuAIZ deployed its railguns; the Twilight burst up into the GuAIZ's face and sliced their barrels off before it could fire.

"You think I'll let you get away with this?!"

The GuAIZ furiously swung its saber towards the Twilight's cockpit; Emily effortlessly blocked it with a downward hack, knocking the GuAIZ's blade aside.

"I'll tear you apart!"

The terrified life inside the GuAIZ's cockpit vanished as the Twilight rammed its left hand clear through the GuAIZ's chest and out its back. The yellow mobile suit sputtered smoke and sparks, until its monoeye faded away. The Twilight yanked its arm out of the GuAIZ's corpse and kicked it towards the sea, and watched impassively as the sky lit up and the world shook with a thundering explosion.

In the Twilight's cockpit, Emily turned her eyes towards her Gundam's hands, dripping with blood.

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"He what?!"

Wellington's furious voice boomed through the command room at the Carpentaria base, nearly bowling over the unfortunate Green-Shirt who broke the news. Wellington's face flashed red in fury as he whirled around to face the strategic map. Argus's armada had reported in three hours ago that they were returning to base— but now...

"The Minerva's captain is requesting to speak with you about this," the Green-Shirt added. "She wasn't happy."

"Of course she wasn't!" Wellington groaned. "Good God, Argus, how could you have been so stupid...what's the damage like?"

"It looks like Argus's task force has been completely wiped out."

Wellington slammed a fist down onto the console in front him. That fool had taken a fifth of Carpentaria's fighting force— a fifth of the remains of ZAFT on the Earth's surface— with him in his stupid crusade. On the eve of their operation against Heaven's Base, Argus had taken a large bite out of his own forces— his own allies. How could he have been so foolish? How could he, Wellington, have been so foolish as to let Argus go?

"Completely wiped out...he took three of our old prototypes with him, too. Goddammit, Argus..."

"Sir, the Minerva's captain told me that they're returning here immediately," the Green-Shirt went on. "But they have just destroyed a detachment of our own forces, and— "

"Get me Commander Holt," Wellington cut him off. "I want the Minerva and its personnel under triple guard when they arrive."

The guard saluted and Wellington dismissed him, and turned back towards the strategic map with fury bubbling in his veins.

Fool, Argus...why didn't you understand? We need them...

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What have I done?

Emily ran the words through her head as she stared at her Gundam's bloody hands, floating above the ocean in the battle's wake. She knew full well where that blood had come from— and every pilot she crushed and mobile suit she tore down was still fresh in her memory. She knew what had prompted this orgy of bloodletting— Isaac, his death, his senseless death, his remains a cloud of debris somewhere in the skies over this miserable patch of ocean. She knew her own battle cries, drawing fear and blood from her enemies and running wild over both.

She squeezed her eyes shut, but that only made the voice grow louder.

She will be our angel of death.

"No!" she cried. "I won't! I...I'll be my own person!"

The words sounded hollow and pitiful before they had even left her mouth, and in the darkness she saw her father, grinning with pride— not at his daughter, but at his own accomplishment, achieved using his daughter.

She will be our angel of death.

"I'm not!" She shook her head. "I'm...I'm something different!" Her eyes shot open and she saw her father's face glowering back at her. "I'm not yours! I'm won't be yours!"

The blood on the Twilight's hands mocked her. If she wasn't her father's weapon, then whose was she? There was no denying it; she knew what she'd said in the heat of battle, and the thoughts to which those words were attached put fear and disgust in her heart.

"I won't be your angel of death!" she cried. "I'm not going to use my power for that!"

The Twilight's bloody hands said otherwise. If she wasn't using her power for her father's selfish purposes, then what was the rampage she had just concluded?

Emily clenched her fists around the controls, focusing on the feel of the plastic casing in her hands. She had to hold on, she told herself, hold on to something other than these memories and feelings and that voice that would not shut up.

She will be our angel of death.

"Stop it!"

Her father's laugh filled her ears, and she saw herself again as a child, watching the orderlies carry her mother's body out of her bedroom. She saw the men in that cold room, all of them talking about her, her father looming over her. And worst of all, instead of her father, she heard her mother.

The best thing you can do is keep being my little angel.

Emily squeezed her eyes shut as the tears began to flow.

"What am I?" She choked back a sob. "Did I kill you, mom?"

No answer came. Emily cracked open her eyes and looked back up at the Twilight's blood-soaked hands. That was all her doing. The soldiers she'd killed ever since that fateful day at Heaven's Base— that was her doing. Kyali's death— that was her doing, for being so careless. Aza, Isaac— they had both died protecting her. Her own mother— that was her doing, for being the reason Gerhardt brought her into existence.

She will be our angel of death.

Emily's eyes flashed in fury. "Shut up!" she screamed. "I won't! I...I'll take this name and make it my own!"

Even as her blood boiled, she heard the voice merely laugh.

She will be our angel of death.

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To be continued...