I don't own anything except Kevin Walker, the Destroyers, Max, Frank Castile, and Meryl Steiglitz

Leona Colde also does not belong to me; she is the creation of arekuruu-inabikari-no-She

Athrun Zala gazed into Kevin Walker's hard, uncompromising eyes, and understood that the super-soldier meant exactly what he said. Not given to bluffs or hyperbole, if he said that he was considering having Meer Campbell assassinated, he was entirely sincere in the threat.

And it doesn't help that I'm none too sure about her deception, either, Athrun thought unhappily. She's not even acting like the real Lacus, and the way she isn't is causing me enough trouble as it is, even without Kevin's reaction…

Even so, though, her existence isn't enough evidence to prove Chairman Durandal was behind the attempt to assassinate Lacus. It looks bad, sure… but even with the creation of the Phase II operatives, I just can't see him going that far…

"Look, Kevin, Kira," he said at length. "I don't really like it either, okay? She isn't my fiancée anymore, but Lacus is still a close friend, and I'm no happier about Meer impersonating her than either of you. But that's just one aspect of the Chairman's current activities; it's not proof of anything else. And yes," he said quickly, as Kevin opened his mouth to protest, "I know that could -theoretically- be enough of a motive for him to try to get Lacus out of the way… but think about it! If the truth got out, it would reverse everything he's accomplished since becoming chairman. It would be insane for him to try that!"

"Not necessarily, Athrun," Kira disagreed quietly. "Not many people knew where Lacus was at the time; that's the only reason he was able to get away with using Meer in the first place. If they'd managed to bring down the entire mansion -and the Pax-19 could've done just that- there wouldn't have been any witnesses to say that Lacus was ever there at all."

Athrun closed his eyes, raised his right hand to his forehead, and rubbed his right temple wearily. I hate arguments like this. Wheels within wheels… it always makes my head hurt. And I don't like being at odds with them like this…

"Kira," he said quietly, "we could argue about this all night, and never get anywhere. I might point out that to completely wipe out knowledge of Lacus' whereabouts, he'd also have to take out Artemis -and even I don't know where that is right now- but there's not really any point. Any conspiracy theory could be plausible here, if you work at it long enough." He spread his hands out, palm up. "All I can really say is that you should look at everything else the Chairman's done since the new war started. Okay, so I'm not too sure about these 'Phase II' Destroyers, but even you have to admit he's not trying to deploy them offensively… and if he was really as bad as you're thinking, don't you think he would've sent them out first thing?"

That argument gave his friends momentary pause, Kevin in particular; and Cagalli, knowing Kevin's past about as well as anyone did by that point, understood exactly why.

He has a point there, she admitted to herself. If the original project had lasted long enough, I'm sure Zala would've deployed Kevin's people right after the Bloody Valentine; considering how things were back then, even the majority of the PLANTs' citizens would probably have gone along with it, if it meant taking out a lot of the Earth Forces. What with the attitude in the PLANTs after the nuclear attack that started this war, I'm sure no one would've objected if Delta's people had been used offensively.

Still…

Cagalli slowly shook her head. "I'm sorry, Athrun," she said quietly, "but that's not all there is to it. Whoever it was that was actually behind it, those Destroyers and their backup were with ZAFT. That shows that someone high up in the PLANTs wants Kevin and Lacus dead; even without Durandal having the motive to do it, there's just too much evidence of ZAFT involvement. If we do anything to coordinate our efforts with ZAFT, we're taking a big risk."

Athrun opened his mouth, then closed it again, frustrated. The worst part of it was that he couldn't really disagree with her analysis. He still didn't believe that Durandal was personally involved -for all that the man had played a role in the ABADDON project, he seemed genuinely sincere in his current efforts, and had far too much to lose if such an operation went wrong- but he couldn't deny that danger still existed.

Kevin's got so many enemies you need a scorecard to keep track, he thought unhappily, and the Archangel isn't much better off. They got away with sending Dominion to help us out, but they've practically got a death warrant out for them by now…

"All right," he said finally. "I can see why you don't want to coordinate directly with ZAFT; I don't like it, but all things considered you're probably right. Still… Why couldn't you go back to Orb, restore things there? With the firepower you have, and the loyalty most of the Orb military holds for the two of you…"

"It's not that easy, Athrun," Kira replied, shaking his head. "Whatever happened, we'd almost certainly have to fight our way through at least some of the Orb forces, and if we did that, it'd be too easy for the Earth Forces to just take outright control while Orb's defenses were still recovering. Also, we recently learned that-"

"Wait one," Kevin interrupted abruptly, voice taking on the snap of command that had surfaced only occasionally in the years since ABADDON. His jade eyes had narrowed behind his shades, and he cocked his head to one side, as though listening to something.

His companions looked at him curiously. While it was true that Kevin tended to be more attuned to his surroundings than they were -ground combat was more his specialty than theirs, particularly Kira and Athrun- it seemed unlikely that there'd be anything to warrant his sudden concern in the place they were now. Athrun had chosen the location for their meeting carefully, believing no one else was likely to find and interrupt it.

Probably just an unexpected bird, Kira reasoned. Or maybe a sensor ghost. Kevin's half-paranoid these days anyway-

The holster built into his armor's right thigh piece popped open, and Kevin smoothly drew the Colt Single Action Army concealed there. Continuing the motion with fluid grace, he swept the revolver up to eye level at arm's length, pivoted to his left, and pulled the trigger.

With a loud bark, the weapon spat a forty-five caliber bullet up toward a rock outcropping a hundred meters away… and slammed headlong into the reception dish of the listening device Lunamaria Hawke was using to eavesdrop on the conversation below.

The dish shattered into a thousand pieces, and Luna recoiled in surprise fully as great as when she'd heard the startling reference to the "fake Lacus". How did he-?

"I don't know who you are," Kevin called, using his augmentation to amplify his voice, "and frankly, I don't really care. But you should know that that kind of gear shows up like a neon sign on my sensors… and that I don't like being spied on."

Shinn Asuka walked slowly, almost painfully, back toward the entrance to the ruined laboratory, now much less affected by the creepy scenery than when he'd entered.

Both his slow speed and effective immunity to the ghosts of the Lodonia lab were due to his companion, for he had one arm slung awkwardly around Rey Za Burrel's shoulders, helping the gasping, obviously agonized pilot out of the building.

I hope Carter's call got the ship moving, Shinn thought, and in a real hurry. Rey… what happened to you in there? I've never seen you react to anything like this before. It's too extreme to be any kind of panic attack, even if that made any sense if the first place… it's almost like a heart attack, but that doesn't make any sense either…

Well, he decided, as they neared the entrance foyer, he'd just better hope Minerva arrived quickly. He hated to interrupt their repairs this way, but if Rey didn't get help soon… He wasn't sure what would happen then, but he was pretty sure it wouldn't be good.

Behind the pair, the two soldiers who had remained behind in the facility had almost forgotten them already; Rey's condition was something of a concern, since Dominion was currently operating in cooperation with ZAFT, but the two of them had more pressing concerns on their minds just then.

Still in tiger-form, the assassin Invictus prowled around the laboratory chamber, reaching out with his various mechanical senses and sniffing intently with his tiger-like nose. "I was wrong," he rumbled, stepping toward a side door. "There is another similarity to the ABADDON lab after all. It's not obvious from the entrance, but…"

Jack Carter nodded, prodding at a cabinet with the barrel of his pistol. "You smell it too, eh? Lubricants and traces of heavy metals… including battle steel, if I'm not mistaken." He glanced at his clone brother, concern overriding any lingering trace of resentment toward his fellow. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

Invictus' fur rippled uneasily, answering the question as well as any verbal signal might have, and with a clap of his hands he reverted back to his normal shape. "Yeah, Jack, I think I'm thinking exactly what you're thinking. Solkin syn… I was afraid of this."

Turning away, he pushed open the door he'd been edging toward before, disappearing through it into darkness, while Carter reached toward the cabinet he was poking at. Now or never, the clone reasoned. Besides, even if it's booby-trapped, what are the odds they ever figured on our kind getting here. He grasped the cabinet's door handle, then hesitated. On second thought, maybe they did expect it, all things considered…

Carter hesitated a moment longer, then shrugged. Ah, to hell with it. If they did, they did; if they didn't, this might be important… and considering the chaos this place looks to have been in, they might not have had time.

Having reached his decision, he pulled open the cabinet.

What he saw within took a moment to truly register; when it did, however, Carter let out a truly vile Russian obscenity… at the same moment a similar expletive -this one in English- erupted from the room into which Invictus had disappeared.

Not looking up from the cabinet, Carter called, "Invictus… I can guess the sort of thing you just found, but I think you should take a look at this."

"Neg," Invictus replied succinctly, a dark shadow in his voice. "You need to see this, Jack. It's very important. More important than anything you'll find in something as small as a cabinet, I think."

Feeling something akin to dread forming in his gut, Carter turned away from the cabinet, and was across the room to the side door in three quick, long strides. I don't like this, he thought uneasily. Onishi's band and the Phase IIs are bad enough as it is. If he's found what I think he's found…

He opened the door, walking quickly to Invictus' side… and swore even more vilely than before at the sight that greeted him.

The cabinet had contained what was recognizable as a Mod-3 cortical central processing unit; relatively low-tech compared to what Carter was used to, but perfectly serviceable for most things. Still, it could've just been leftovers from the original biological CPU experiments. He knew Sabnak, Andras, and Buer had made use of some cybernetics themselves.

The grisly sight here, however, was quite another matter entirely.

How long the unfortunate fellow had been dead was unclear; too much tissue had been shredded. Nor did it matter, all things considered, for what lay beneath the mangled flesh was far more important. Large portions of both breastbone and skull had been revealed by the explosion that tore up the room and presumably killed the man.

And instead of the stark white of ordinary bone, both chest and skull gleamed silver… an effect which both super-soldiers recognized, having seen it on themselves when wounded sufficiently.

The corpse had begun life as a human… but it had been modified in a process Carter and Invictus both knew all too well, which meant the day even Carter had secretly feared was at hand.

The Earth Alliance had begun experimenting with true Destroyers themselves.

Luna, though semi-paralyzed with surprise, had the presence of mind to duck back down below the outcropping before she could be identified; it would now be obvious to Athrun that someone was following him around, but she could at least minimize the damage.

But how did he do that? she wondered, shaken. My amplification gear is all passive; even with his sensors, he shouldn't have been able… Oh. Passive, yeah, but still electronic; he must've picked up on the electromagnetic signature… no wonder it's hard to sneak up on the bastard.

"Free piece of advice, comrade," Kevin called, raising his revolver off-target. "Get out of here. I don't like eavesdroppers, and without that dish I don't think you'll be doing much listening in anyway. And…" His jade eyes turned cold. "This isn't your business, so buzz off."

Only Kevin Walker, Luna reflected, would say something like that when confronting an unknown spy, one who could well be equipped to blast him into dust bunnies. That guy really doesn't fear death, she thought, shaking her head. Easy to see why Shinn hates him so much…

Nonetheless, she shut down her remaining gear, and began to slink away… carefully. She had no intention of leaving completely -she could still at least watch, presuming she found a new vantage point- but there was no sense in being obvious about it.

For his part, as soon as the energy signatures vanished, Kevin raised the Colt, blew the black powder smoke from its barreled, and returned it smoothly to its holster with a quick twirl. "Now then," he said, pulling a cigarette from a waist compartment and sticking it between his teeth, "where were we?"

Cagalli glanced at him quizzically. "You're not going after them?"

He shrugged. "Nah. If they're smart, they'll be gone by now; and if not, let 'em watch. It won't tell them anything new."

Kira and Athrun exchanged a resigned look. Fond though they were of their mutual friend, even after thirteen years they still found some of his tendencies… wearying. Like being so blasé about the possibility of a hostile being so close by.

No point worrying about it, though, Athrun mused. If the spy were really interested in attacking, he or she probably would've done it by now…

"So," he said aloud, "what was this thing you've 'recently learned'? If it's serious enough to hamper a return to Orb…"

"Onishi's back," Cagalli told him soberly. "Not long before the Orb task force set out for the Dardanelles, Baron Onishi returned to Orb, and reclaimed his place in the government… at least, we think that's what he's doing."

Athrun blinked. "Onishi… but what's he trying to do? If he's back in the government, why is he still letting Orb participate in Earth Alliance operations? Considering that Blue Cosmos killed his wife, I thought he'd hate the Earth Forces."

Kevin snorted. "I don't even pretend to understand how Dad thinks these days, Athrun. True, he seems to have placed a lot of that hate on me, for having 'provoked' the sabotage in the first place, but still… Well, whatever the reason, you can be sure that his current actions suit his ultimate goals. Dad is one of the most devious people alive, and his schemes usually pan out."

His friend nodded unhappily. He'd never met Baron John Tyler Onishi -a fact for which he counted himself fortunate- but he knew the man's reputation. The original driving force behind Orb's mobile suit development, it was his hand that orchestrated the construction of Morgenröte's mobile suit production facilities at Heliopolis, for the development of MBF-M1000 Sturm Falke. Though the Sahaku family had later taken control, the original project had been a success… even if no one realized it at the time.

That guy… whatever he's up to, it could threaten both Earth and the PLANTs, in ways we haven't even thought of yet; Kevin was part of something that took decades to reach its conclusion… if it has. Still…

"I would've thought you could take out two birds with one stone," Athrun said slowly. "Retake Orb and stop Onishi's plans. Or is there something else going on?"

"Avalon Base," Kira supplied. "The Onishi family stronghold. Archangel got most of the top-of-the-line equipment out, but there's still enough there that any attack against him with our resources would be a disaster." He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Athrun, but this really is the only way open to us now." He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again and met Athrun's gaze. "Athrun… are you going to fight against Orb again?"

Athrun looked away. "…I don't want to," he said quietly. "Believe me, fighting Orb is the last thing I want to do. But… look, you know how it is. If Orb forces attack us, we can't just sit there and let them, and we can't rely on the Archangel to do all the fighting, either. You won't always be there, you can't take care of everything… and whether you like it or not, you do cause enough confusion that we can't rely on your assistance."

"We know, Athrun," Kira told him, and meant it. For all that he hated the extremes war forced people into, for all that he and his companions wanted to minimize Orb casualties, he understood Athrun's point. Archangel was only one ship, with only a few mobile suits, and they could not follow Minerva everywhere… and even if they did, Orb forces would undoubtedly be engaging ZAFT in other theaters.

All they could do was minimize the conflicts where they could, and try to find a way to restore Orb's legitimate government; only in that could they end it. So far, though, they hadn't had much success in that regard, and until they did…

"We understand what you have to do, Athrun," Cagalli said quietly, unconsciously leaning against Kevin's solid, reassuring frame. "We don't expect you to just sit back and let yourselves be shot… but at the same time, can you understand our point? We… we don't want Orb soldiers to be killed just because of that bastard Seiran's treason!"

Athrun sighed. "Yeah," he admitted. "I understand. Like I said, I don't want to fight Orb, either; they're innocent pawns, and I fought alongside some of those guys toward the end of the last war. I… Look," he said, meeting her gaze, "I'll do what I can. I'll try not to destroy Orb units if I can avoid it, and I'll see what I can do about getting my people to do the same. I can't make any promises about Shinn, of course-"

This remark prompted a snort from Kevin; having already engaged the Impulse in battle more than once, he was completely unimpressed. If he gets too far out of line, I blast Impulse to dust bunnies, he mused. Nice and simple.

"-but about the others… I might be able to do something," Athrun went on. "Luna's not exactly happy with me these days, and I don't have any idea what to make of Rey, but they'll follow orders. And Heine should be easy enough to convince; he doesn't like what you guys did at the Dardanelles, but he's actually got a pretty good opinion of you otherwise."

For perhaps the first time since they'd arrived, Kira smiled. "Thank you, Athrun," he said sincerely. "That's about the most we could ask. We'll keep trying to stop things from our end, too; maybe if we work together, we can find a way to get Orb out of the fighting entirely."

"Maybe we can," Athrun agreed, relaxing visibly. "I hope so. This entire war… it's gone too far already, and it looks like it's only going to get worse." He paused. "And… Kevin?"

The super-soldier raised an eyebrow. "Da?"

"I'm going to look into the Phase-II project," the blue-haired pilot told him. "I don't like it any better than you do; even if Lacus hadn't gotten hurt, I remember what Father said about the Phase-I project all too well. If there's anything rotten going on there, I'll find it… and put a stop to it."

Cagalli's eyes widened, and Kevin took on a very concerned expression. "…I appreciate that, Athrun, but do you realize what you're getting into?" There was a clear note of warning -and concern- in both his voice and eyes. "Natalya Ivanova is a very cold-blooded individual; she wouldn't hesitate to eliminate you if you meddled with whatever her agenda is. And… battling with Destroyers isn't a task even I take on lightly. For a Coordinator to make the attempt…"

To his surprise, Athrun actually smiled. "You worry too much, Kevin," he said, shaking his head. "In the first place, Arkanian isn't stupid; I think she knows that attacking me would send you on a rampage. And the second…" His smile turned wry. "Kevin, the way you said it yourself shows the advantage I have: you referred to me as a Coordinator, as though you aren't one yourself."

Kevin blinked, taken aback. "Well, that's because-"

"Because you're not human anymore?" Athrun interrupted, and shook his head again. "Kevin, whether or not that's true, you're still showing the problem other Destroyers are likely to have. Since I'm not one of them, they'll just assume I can't hurt them… which wouldn't be very smart of them." His emerald eyes gleamed. "One thing I've learned over the last couple years, Kevin, is that Destroyers do have weaknesses… and I have some idea of how to exploit them, especially if the Phase-IIs really are weaker than you are."

Kira watched Kevin's expression carefully after that remark, noting with interest his friend's perceptible -to him- inner uncertainty. Over the years since Kevin had returned from his semi-exile, his attitude had shown, however subtly, that he believed himself to be beyond merely human, in terms of his physical ability; and while that was true, it seemed to go further than that, like a silent assumption that no "mere human" could ever compete with the fruits of Abaddon.

The fact was, though, that Cagalli had injured Mike Carnehan shortly before his death, and the Coordinator assassins sent to the Onishi Mansion had managed to keep Kevin on his toes, however briefly. And if anyone had both the knowledge and ability to face a Destroyer with "merely human" strength, it was Athrun Zala.

The only question is, Kira thought, whether or not Kevin can accept that. He really does think of himself as being overwhelmingly superior to humanity… and he's always so worried about losing people…

After a long, silent moment of inner struggle, Kevin slowly nodded. "…Maybe you're right," he mused, almost as though speaking to himself alone. "Even now, we consider ourselves a breed apart… but maybe that arrogance could also be our downfall, if faced by the right -or wrong- opponent."

Leaving Cagalli's side, he stepped up to Athrun, tapped his left thigh, and pulled a pistol out of the compartment that popped open. Twirling it around his armored left index finger for a moment, he spun it completely around, caught it by the barrel, and extended its grip toward Athrun.

"Take it," Kevin told him. "Might come in handy."

Hesitantly, the other pilot accepted the weapon. "Antique," he noted, looking it over. "Forty-five caliber?"

Kevin nodded. "Antique it may be, but serviceable. Colt M1911, modified with a long slide, custom rubber grips, tritium sights, and top of the line trigger and hammer assemblies. The ammunition is a mixture, copper-jacketed explosive hollow points alternating with 'Talon-style' bullets, with copper jackets meant to peel away into eight prongs, for maximum damage potential. You'll want to use the explosive rounds on Destroyers; I don't think Phase-II has AKWES, so it should work reasonably well."

"…Thanks, Kevin." Athrun clapped the super-soldier on the shoulder. "I hope I won't need this, but if I do… thanks." He looked over at Kira and Cagalli. "Look… I'd better go. Minerva won't be going anywhere for a couple of weeks yet,, but there are a few people aboard who might start to wonder if I'm gone too long."

Cagalli nodded. "I understand, Athrun. But you take care of yourself, you hear me? You nearly got yourself killed way too many times in the last war; we won't forgive you if you do something stupid and get fried."

Athrun smiled. "Don't worry. I learned my lesson back then… back on that day." He didn't need to elaborate; they all remembered his near-disastrous meeting with his father, before Mendel. "I'll be coming back… whenever it is that we can finally meet again."

Turning away, he began walking toward the Savior… but Kira's voice gave him pause. "Athrun… will we have to fight you?"

He froze, tensing for a moment, then relaxed. "No," he said firmly. "No matter what happens… I'm not repeating the mistakes we made three years ago. Whatever happens from here on, we're not enemies. Not now… and not ever again." He turned to face them again, a wistful look on his face. "Just like at Copernicus… we're friends. Always."

I wonder what Athrun's doing now, Meyrin Hawke thought, leaning back in her Bridge chair. He… probably went off to meet with Walker and those others, I guess; but what about? And it's been over a day now…

She assumed he wasn't in any danger, at least not from the Archangel's people; it was, after all, quite well known that Athrun Zala had fought alongside the ship in the latter stages of the previous war, and was close friends with several of them. The chances of the likes of the Freedom pilot attacking him were effectively nil.

On the other hand, Meyrin knew a few things about the situation that her crewmates did not… such as the nature of the marauding Leviathan and its pilot. She hadn't heard the full story, but Athrun had given her a few of the highlights when Luna wasn't around, so she knew there was a chance of something going very wrong, should Michael Carnehan choose to hunt down Kevin Walker during the meeting.

Guess I shouldn't borrow trouble, though, Meyrin mused with a sigh. Athrun's a good pilot; even if something does happen, he'll be able to get away… or defeat it. I might as well just relax for now; besides, it's not as if Minerva will be going somewhere anytime soon, so…

Relaxing even further, she allowed her eyes to close for a moment, enjoying the chance to rest. After spending so much time coordinating supply transfers and work parties, she was dead tired. The last time she'd been this exhausted was when Minerva was chasing Bogey One, and thence to the site of Break The World.

I guess this is how war is, she thought, stifling a yawn. Moments of pure terror mixed in with hours of grueling work and days of absolute bore-

A beeping sound interrupted her idle musing, and Meyrin snapped upright as the code registered. Leaning forward, her fingers made contact with her keyboard and tapped in a quick acceptance sequence. The signal was quantum in nature, which almost certainly meant-

"Signal from the Lodonia team, Captain!" Meyrin called over her shoulder. "From Carter's quantum link!"

Talia Gladys, heretofore taking an unobtrusive breather of her own, straightened quickly. "Put it on, Meyrin," she ordered, inwardly wondering what was so urgent; Jack Carter was such an independent sort she wouldn't have expected to hear from him -or even the assassin Invictus- until they'd returned to the ship.

Meyrin wasted no time complying, having already begun doing just that, and Carter's voice came over the Bridge speakers a moment later. "Jack Carter here," he said flatly. "Captain Gladys, we've got a situation here: Za Burrel just had some kind of fit and collapsed; dunno what's going on, but I think he needs medical attention, ASAP."

Talia's gaze snapped to Malik Yardbirds, just starting to rouse from his own semi-torpor; considering his position as helmsman, he'd had no more reason to expect any duties just then than anyone else. "Malik," she snapped, "check with Aves and Alexander, find out if we're at all flight-capable yet. If so, prepare for immediate takeoff."

"Right away, Captain," Yardbirds replied crisply, sudden adrenaline charge providing the energy to wake him up completely. "Engine Room, this the Bridge. I need to know if we can take off…"

Ignoring both the burst of semi-obscene complaining over the intercom and Malik's wince, Talia turned her attention back to the radio link. "What's Rey's condition, Carter? What happened?"

"Haven't the foggiest idea," Carter replied, his tone implying a shrug. "We reached one of the interior rooms -pretty ghastly, by the way; you'll see what I mean when you get here- and the kid just started hyperventilating, muttering to himself, and clutching his chest. If I didn't know better, I'd say he was having a heart attack, but it doesn't make any damn sense… Look, Shinn's with him, but he needs professional assistance as soon as possible."

She nodded grimly. "Understood. Please contact me if anything else happens; in the meantime, we'll be on our way shortly."

"Affirm, Captain.. Carter out."

Gingerly replacing the earpiece he'd removed when Aves began shouting at him, Malik turned to look up at the captain. "We're, ah, ready to go, Ma'am," he said with another wince. "Aves isn't happy about it, but we can move… as long as we don't have to pull any combat maneuvers, anyway. If we do, he says we'll explode."

Typical mechanic, Talia thought, with a mental shake of her head. "Can't be helped; we need to bring the doctor to Rey. Launch Minerva, and head for the Lodonia lab at best available speed."

"Roger."

"Solkin syn," Kevin breathed, watching as Savior rose smoothly into the air, folded into mobile armor mode, and turned back toward the mainland. "You think he'll be okay?"

Kira sighed. "I don't know," he admitted, gazing after the red machine until it shrank to a speck. "I think he can handle himself… but I'm still not happy that he's gone back to ZAFT like that. After everything that's happened…"

The two exchanged a look, and Cagalli knew what they were thinking about. She'd only been present for one of the… unpleasant encounters between the three friends during the first war, when Kevin nearly killed Athrun on an island in the Indian Ocean, but she remembered well the angst that had surrounded all three of them during that time.

Time and again, they'd met each other on the field of battle, with Kira nearly suffering a mental breakdown from the stress, and Kevin actually vowing to kill Athrun… with everything culminating in a terrible encounter in the Marshall Islands. That battle had been a pure grudge match, fueled by the death of Nicol Amalfi and the apparent demise of Tolle Koenig; it was something of a mystery that any of them had survived that day.

It was no mystery at all, however, why none of them wanted to repeat it.

"I'm sure it won't come to that this time," Cagalli told them, gripping their shoulders and gently tugging them back. "It's not like back then; whatever may be going on inside ZAFT, you know you're all on the same page this time. Well, mostly," she amended, taking into account Athrun's disagreement with their methods. "Anyway, you know this isn't going to result in some kind of battle like last time… so cheer up, okay?"

"…Yeah," Kira agreed, allowing Cagalli to guide him back toward the mobile suits. "Yeah, you're right. If it came down to that again, there's no way Athrun would side with ZAFT over us; we all learned our lesson from that battle." He glanced at Kevin. "Right… tovarisch?"

Kevin smiled, though his eyes were curiously shadowed. "Yeah, you're right. It'd be like old times… like when we planted that bottle rocket in Kyle's locker."

Kira laughed, remembering the chaos the incident had caused. "I haven't thought about that in years! Blew up the entire row of lockers, didn't it? All that hairspray…"

Cagalli burst out laughing, losing her grip on their shoulders. "You… you blew up someone's locker? Why? And why was there hairspray…?"

"Kyle Vosper," Kira explained, his chuckling now as much from Cagalli's amusement as his own recollections. "He was the leader of the bullies Kevin beat up when we were kids; he didn't remember it afterwards, of course, but we still, uh… Well, we didn't exactly pass up opportunities to get back at him even after that. And he was kind of narcissistic, so…"

"We got caught," Kevin remembered, vividly recalling the interesting shade of puce their principle had turned afterwards. "Nearly got us suspended, actually, especially since this was after the ferret incident, but Kyle caught some of the flack, too -something about a fire hazard in his locker- so the principle had the three of us do the cleanup, and that was that."

"Kyle turned over a new leaf after that, though," Kira remembered. "Stopped bullying… and then planted some kind of really disgusting chemical mix in Kevin's locker, connected to a firecracker."

"Opened the locker, and boom," the super-soldier affirmed with a grimace. "Kyle was smart: not much of a blast… but he'd noticed that I had a very acute sense of smell. That ammonia-garlic mix put me out like a light."

Cagalli shook her head, still chuckling. Kevin she could easily imagine behaving in such a way; they'd known each other all their lives, after all, and she remembered his near-constant rivalry with one Yuna Roma Seiran. Kira, on the other hand… She'd only gotten to know him after the Archangel arrived in Libya, and so had never seen how he'd been as a child. The idea of him -or Athrun, for that matter- indulging in pranks was both hilarious and difficult to comprehend.

Before the war, I guess, she mused. Everything was different back then. Kevin's father had already started scheming, but none of us knew that back then; we were all just kids in those years…

"Those were some good times," Kira said thoughtfully. "Kind of scary, especially when our pranks went bad, but good times… before tensions escalated, and everything started going wrong."

"Tell me about it," Kevin said fervently, recalling his mother's death… and his own subsequent abduction and enhancement into a cybernetic killing machine. "Well… maybe we'll see days like that again, after all this is over." His gaze turned to the sky, still discolored from the damage of Break The World. "If we can just choose the right future…"

Cagalli glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "You know, Kevin," she said slowly, "there's something I've been meaning to ask you."

He raised an eyebrow. "Eh?"

"Well, your talk about the future reminded me about something." She hesitated. "You've said, since we left Orb, that you stopped using ZERO because of something that happened between the wars… but you've never said what, and I can't get Murrue or anyone else to tell me, either."

Kevin's step faltered for an instant, most of his body freezing in the manner Murrue Ramius had long ago noted was his typical reaction to being startled. Behind his bright jades eyes, images of destruction flashed past, of a dark shape blazing through space, titanic azure bursts, tremendous explosions… and a frightful, jade-eyed visage…

"…I saw a future I didn't want," he said at length, voice almost inaudible. "A terrible future… I saw my dark half…"

"Your dark half…?" Cagalli stopped, turning to face her boyfriend. "Kevin, what did you-"

A streak of azure light flashed overhead, close enough for the trio to feel the heat of its passage.

Kevin and Cagalli threw themselves flat, dragging Kira down with them, just as the black shape flew by mere meters over their heads. "Solkin syn!" Kevin burst out, rolling over to search the sky. "It's Leviathan!"

"I knew I'd find you soon, Hydra!" a voice shouted, projected from external speakers on the attacking mobile suit. "The stage is set, and the game is on!"

Pulling up into a steep climb, ZGMF-X15A/M Leviathan looped around, leveled off, and transformed smoothly into mobile suit mode. Hovering there on the backwash of thrusters fueled by matter/antimatter annihilation, Michael Carnehan's machine gazed down at the three with its bright jade eyes… and its twin buster rifle was pointed loosely in their direction.

Loosely, in this case, meaning that a shot anywhere near would still fry them.

"Nichevo!" Kevin exploded. "Kira, get Cagalli to the Freedom, and hurry!" Scrambling to his feet, he leapt into a mad dash for the cliff edge, moving at a speed Kira couldn't match, trusting his armor and augmented body to get him safely through the coming fall.

"Wait!" Cagalli shouted after him. "I'm going with you!" She climbed to her feet, starting to run after him… but Kira pulled her back.

"He'll fight better by himself," he said urgently, tugging her away toward Freedom.

"He has a higher G-tolerance than either of us, remember? Nemesis might knock you out!" Ignoring her protests, he scooped her up into his arms, charging toward Freedom… wondering distantly why Leviathan hadn't already fried them all.

He got his answer a moment later in the form of a laugh from the hovering mobile suit. "Good!" the Kraken called out. "This would all be meaningless if you didn't even have a chance to fight back! The future I've chosen… needs a grander battle than that!"

"Crazy bastard," Kevin muttered to himself, and launched himself into a flying leap for Nemesis' hatch. Landing hard on its lower half, he lunged for the pilot's seat, simultaneously bringing up his radio implant. Ordinarily, he could trust Archangel to have noticed the threat already… but Leviathan was made from the same material as Nemesis, and thus invisible to radar. "Archangel, we have a problem!"

Instantly, Murrue's voice resonated in his mastoid. "What is it, Kevin? Leviathan?"

"No doubt about it, Murrue," Kira answered, before Kevin could; he'd gotten into Freedom's cockpit, with Cagalli clinging to the side of his seat, and patched into the quantum radio signal. "It's Carnehan, all right… and I think he's here to finish it."

Murrue swore audibly; not normally given to such a reaction, she knew all too well the power of Gundanium machines… especially in the hands of those as indiscriminate as Carnehan. "Can you escape?"

"Negative," he replied tightly. "He can outrun us; last time he only retreated because of damage."

"I'm on my way," Leona Colde cut in. "Kira, Reaper, hold out until I arrive. We can take him together; last time we were able to force him off, and we've got a better idea of what we're facing this time." Her voice was as cold as her name. "I'll give him a taste of my fury… you can count on it."

"Better hurry," Kevin told her grimly, bringing Nemesis' systems to life. "This guy is not one to be taken lightly, remember." His expression tightened. "Either way, though, it ends tonight." His cybernetic hand clenched. "One way or another… I'll finish it once and for all."

There was silence on the other end of the link for a long moment, and then Murrue spoke up again, very softly. "Are you sure you can do this, Kevin? Whatever he may be now, you know what he used to be… and you don't have to do this. Kira and Leona have a better chance against Leviathan anyway." She hesitated. "And what if you get yourself killed doing it?"

Kevin was silent for several moments himself. He understood her concerns all too well; he'd been with her when Mu died, and understood quite well how strongly she felt for those close to her… just as he knew what his own death would do to her, Cagalli, and a number of other people.

And he also understood, all too well, her concern about who he was facing.

"…I don't know if I can do it or not," he admitted quietly. "I killed him once, in Banadiya, but he'd directly threatened Cagalli then… and I was still uncertain of my own feelings about the Abaddon. But… I don't have much of a choice. If he survives Leviathan's fall, I'm the only one who can stop him on foot, Murrue. You know that."

For one brief moment, Kevin thought she was going to order him to depart anyway; and though he recognized the authority of very few, he would have obeyed the order, much as he would had it come from Cagalli… but then a resigned, tense sigh came over the airwaves.

"…I still don't like it," Murrue said quietly, "but I see your point. But," she added strongly, "you'd better come back alive! You hear me, Kevin? If you die again, I'll put you in the brig for the next six months!"

Kevin surprised them both by laughing lightly; though after all, Murrue was partly serious, considering his history. "Da, tovarisch. No getting killed today. I may even be home by midnight."

"See that you are," Murrue instructed. "Kira, you take care of the idiot, understood? And Cagalli, I expect you to take action if he does anything insane!"

"I'll do my best, Murrue," Kira promised, as Freedom began to rise into the air.

"So will I," Cagalli agreed. "If he does do anything crazy…"

Kevin winced; as Cagalli Yula Athha was the one person in the entire world whom he would unquestioningly obey, she was entirely capable of giving him a lot of grief if he did anything "crazy".

"All right, then." Murrue sighed again. "I'll have Archangel heading your way soon; if this goes on too long, we'll see how Carnehan handles direct fire-support. And until then… Godspeed to you all."

The link closed, leaving only silence.

Now fully activated, Freedom and Nemesis climbed rapidly into the air, both pilots already prepared to lunge into motion at any moment… and Leviathan hovered above, like some kind of demonic bird.

Seeing the two lift off at last, Michael Carnehan grinned. Here it comes, he thought, elated. The beginning of the end… the final act of this insane play. When this ends, so will everything else.

(Indeed, Kraken,) the other voice within Leviathan noted, anticipation evident in the silent tone. (The time has come to burn brightly, to leave our mark upon the world… and to finally bring your part to its conclusion. Win or lose, we shall both see satisfaction.)

Exactly right, compadre. Carnehan's grin widened. "Glad you could make it, Hydra," he called mockingly. "And you brought one of your friends from last time… well, that's okay. Everything ends here, Kevin! This whole sad business, my cursed existence… and your treason will all be expunged from this world with one last clash!"

Raising Leviathan's twin buster rifle to the sky, he separated it into two, each hand filling with one of the powerful weapons. "Have at you, Hydra! Choose the future that you desire… and fight for it!"

Bending down over the metal-covered corpse, Invictus grimaced. "Poor bastard," he muttered, examining the body even as Carter hacked into a nearby computer terminal. "I wonder what they did to you, before you got blown up?" Reaching out with gloved hands, he took hold of the skeleton's skull, applied carefully metered pressure, and yanked it right off.

"You're disgusting," Carter said over his shoulder, fingers flying over the keys. "D'you have to be that morbid, Invictus?"

"It's not easy to check for implants when it's still attached," the assassin replied calmly, and rested the skull in the palm of his left hand. "Alas, poor Yorik… I knew him well."

"Doubt it," Carter told him. "Unless you've been to Eurasia more than I think you have." When Invictus turned to him confusion, he pointed to the menu he'd just brought up, displaying a list of test subjects.

One name on the list read as "Yancey Orik".

"Y. Orik," Invictus said in disbelief. "Ugh." Baffled -and now mildly creeped out himself- he set the skull aside. "Well, however bizarre the coincidence, the fact remains that he was some kind of Destroyer imitation. A bit crude compared to you or me, but serviceable; I found a comm. implant in what was left of his right mastoid process, his skeleton's been atomically bonded with titanium, and I noticed something on his hands that looks to be derived from Kevin's shape-memory claws."

Carter let out a noise of disgust, and then turned back to his hacking. We knew this was inevitable, he thought grimly. They obviously didn't have access to any original material -unless, I suppose, they realized what Carnehan was, and studied him when he was working for CARDINAL- but Walker is a bit too high-profile these days. It was only a matter of time before some genius on the Earth Alliance side of things started working out how Destroyers functioned…

Clearly their understanding was less than perfect; the use of titanium instead of battle steel indicated they were still feeling their way into the skeletal reinforcement techniques, and the CPU Carter had found earlier was more primitive than what he himself was equipped with… but they were undoubtedly learning, and "crude" did not mean harmless.

Not when dealing with augmented soldiers, at any rate. Even crude Destroyer analogues would be a force multiplier of considerable effect, whether on foot or in mobile suits. Enhanced reflexes and high G-tolerances were of great significance in mobile suit warfare.

"We'd better warn Captain Gladys about this when Minerva arrives," Carter muttered, breaking through another layer of security. "I don't like ZAFT, but I do like the PLANTs; the idea of them being hit with these things without any warning doesn't sit well with me at all."

"Agreed. And that reminds me… We'll need to report this to Natarle as soon as we get back. Kevin needs to hear about this." Invictus straightened, gazing down at the corpse with a mixture of pity and disgust. "Rotten bastards…"

A distant rumbling sound began to resonate through the walls of the wrecked lab, prompting Carter to pause in his hacking efforts. "Engines and levitators," he noted, listening intently. "Mobile assault ship-grade. I think Minerva's here."

"Sounds like," the assassin agreed, and turned toward the door. "You keep trying to get the experimentation records; I'll go greet the reinforcements."

"Affirm."

Invictus stepped away from the corpse, turned, and departed from the room, even as Carter's keystrokes continued without pause. Why can't anything ever be simple? the assassin lamented inwardly, making his way back through the corridors. We've got at least four factions involved in this whole mess -ZAFT, the Earth Forces, us, and Father- and three of them have Destroyer variants, while the fourth has a veritable army of modifica extremis clones. Thank heavens we're not on fighting terms with ZAFT at the moment; having the Phase-II program on our case would make things even worse than they already are…

Twin bolts of pure azure light split the skies, targeted effortlessly in two different directions, and the two mobile suits hurriedly flung themselves to either side.

"Vnyebrachnyi," Kevin hissed, and snapped up his own twin buster rifle. A crosshair appearing in his mental vision, he guided it on-target in the blink of an eye, focusing on Leviathan's head… and squeezed the trigger.

With the buster rifle still in duel-fire mode, the resulting blast was more powerful than either of the shots Leviathan had unleashed, and over twice as large, despite the difference in weapon power. Scorching across the sky with sufficient energy to tear through almost any armor known to man, a hit of any kind would've resulted in instant victory.

But Kevin was denied that hit.

Converting to mobile armor mode faster and more smoothly than even its designer thought possible, Leviathan was in motion even as the shot was fired, and its powerful thrusters shoved it into a steep dive a split second before the high-energy burst could pulverize it.

"Nice shot, Hydra," Carnehan acknowledged, leveling off. "But you still don't understand what you're dealing with!" Feeding power into his thrusters, he launched Leviathan forward… and azure light leapt into existence on the leading edges of its wings. "I've mastered your great invention in ways you wouldn't have believed possible!"

Kira's eyes widened, realizing Kraken's intent. "Kevin, look out!" Even as he uttered the warning, he spun Freedom around, following Leviathan's flight path with viper-like speed of his own, and his fingers flew across his controls.

His own awareness heightened by the stimulants and synapse-boosting drugs he routinely used in battle, Kevin understood the danger himself almost instantly… but however fast his thought processes, no drug could enhance the speed of his mobile suit. All he could do was watch Leviathan as it closed, intent on slicing him in half with its beam-edged wings… and make a desperate attempt to bring his own rifle back on target in time to make a difference.

Too slow, Hydra, Carnehan thought, smiling tightly. Come on, come on, come on! If you would just understand what you're dealing with, we could have a real-

At the instant before impact, a heavy, doubled thud emanated from Leviathan's tail. "What the hell?" With an exclamation and a strangled curse from the resurrected Destroyer, Leviathan's nose kicked skyward, the high-velocity impacts just forward of its engines having forcibly dropped its tail, and it shot wildly upward, missing Nemesis' head by less than two meters.

Two hundred meters away, Cagalli let out a sigh of pure relief. "Nice shooting, Kira," she breathed. "Very nice."

(His reflexes are better than anticipated,) ZERO whispered. (Now updating threat profile of Freedom and Kira Yamato.)

Kira was no Destroyer… but he was about as close as any non-augmented human could come. Combining physical capabilities close to modifica extremis with greater mental and emotional stability, there was a reason many acknowledged the Freedom's pilot as the best in the world. Especially when combined with the Freedom itself.

Having turned in place a fraction faster than Leviathan could fly in a straight line, Kira had targeted by eye and unleashed a pair of hyper-velocity slugs from his rail cannons at precisely the right moment to blast the stolen prototype off its deadly course.

Now Kira tracked his Lupus rifle across, snapping it into position while Leviathan was still fumbling in its attempts to regain control… and pulled the trigger the instant his reticule went red, spitting a bolt of pure emerald light across the sky.

Only to have it spatter into green sparks, shattered on contact with a bright, web-like hemisphere that coalesced into existence a meter out from Leviathan's tail.

"Nice one, Freedom," Carnehan taunted, forcibly wrenching his machine back under control. "But I've got the measure of you now, and you won't get me so easily next time!" Leviathan snapped upright, whirling in place to bring its buster rifle to bear-

And threw itself backwards as a three-meter burst of azure light nearly took its head off.

"Solkin syn," Kevin swore, frustrated. "I haven't missed this much since I fought Providence… just what the hell is going on here?" Separating his rifles, he swept his wings back, poured energy into his thrusters, and charged, triggering bolts of synthetic lightning at his brother's machine as he came.

To his confusion and increasing frustration, Leviathan boosted to one side, spun completely around, and even performed a rapid backflip to evade the powerful fusion bolts. Instead of tearing the black machine apart, as they ought to have, they burned right on past, leaving ionized air behind them, and crashed into the ground, impacting with the force of a fair amount of old-fashioned TNT.

"You still don't get it, do you, Hydra?" Kraken's mouth twisted in a cruel smile. "You can't win by fighting me with only that level. Don't you understand? I foresaw this battle… just as I foresee every move you make!"

In Freedom's cockpit, Kira's eyes went wide, and Cagalli gasped, suddenly understanding the implications of both Carnehan's words and his startling ability to predict incoming fire. "It can't be!"

Within the cockpit of the Nemesis, Kevin's face paled and his own eyes went wide, their pupils shifting to slits in a partial, involuntary transformation, as shock mixed with more than a touch of horror exploded in his gut. "No," he breathed. "ZERO… What did you see?" he demanded. "What future did ZERO show you? Answer me, damn you! What did you see, in that twisted mirror?"

Kraken laughed, a sound of pure exhilaration… and glee. "I saw the end, Hydra! The end of this twisted existence… or this pointless battle… of our own abominable past! ZERO showed me the way… to end it all. To finally escape this prison of a half-life, and to finally exact revenge for our fallen comrades!" He grinned, no longer mocking, but rather the look of a man who knows his trials will soon be over. "And what about you, Kevin? What do you see, when you look into ZERO? What future do you choose?"

It went against everything he'd done over the past two years. It went against his own promise to himself not to do it again, against Murrue's fears… and against his own fear of what might happen to him if he did. But he did it anyway.

Kevin Walker's free hand reached out, darting for the red switch on his instrument panel. Flipping up its cover, he pressed it without hesitation…

And Nemesis' own ZERO System came fully alive for the first time since its initial activation, over a year previously.

Two kilometers from the battle area, appearing as a barely-visible distortion in the air, a sleek, lethal craft hovered, observing the conflict. Within its cramped cockpit, an armored figure lay, watching the duel through the strike fighter's sensors.

"Not good," the soldier known only as Hyperion muttered. "Mike is in that thing… and he's somehow gained full control over its capabilities." Hyperion cursed, eyes closing in pain not of the body. "Mike, please… stop this. You knew the truth once; you knew then why Kevin did what he did…"

The soldier cursed again. It's my fault, Hyperion thought bitterly. Mike saved me that day… and then wiped out his memories of it, braking his own mind in the process. If I hadn't taken this path, then maybe…

The Excalibur fighter twitched in the air, slipping minutely from side to side, as conflicting impulses flashed through the armored soldier's mind. On the one hand, Hyperion wanted to intervene, to protect Kevin as before… but on the other, Hyperion was very, very reluctant to battle Mike Carnehan… the one responsible for bringing the soldier safely out of the ABADDON lab before it exploded.

In the end, Hyperion's decision would almost certainly have come out in Kevin's favor -the soldier's chosen duty was to protect him, after all- but one piece of information served to allow the soldier to escape the dilemma entirely… at least for now. Covertly accessing bio-data via the old Destroyer interlinks, Hyperion took one look at the two combatants' alpha waves, and instantly canceled any movement orders to the fighter.

The Excalibur was a phenomenal machine, capable of delivering and surviving a great deal of punishment… but Hyperion was not insane enough to risk taking it into the middle of a battle between two ZERO system-equipped mobile suits with buster-class weaponry.

And so I'm granted a reprieve, Hyperion thought. But still… it's only a reprieve. If this ends the way I fear it might…

The soldier's eyes closed again. If the battle failed to end with the duel between mobile suits, and carried on into a hand-to-hand engagement… then Hyperion would have to confront the decision again.

No matter how badly either outcome would hurt.

Several kilometers distant from the impromptu battlefield, the sea shifted, water starting to spray into the air, as something came up from below, plowing toward the surface was almost reckless speed. Reckless… yet undeniably graceful.

Almost everything about the mobile assault ship Archangel was graceful, as befitted her majestic -if unorthodox- form.

The sleek, white ship burst free from the water's grip, arcing into the sky, all five fusion-powered thrusters pumping out energy at maximum military power. Unhampered by the water's resistance, the Archangel would make much better time… though the tradeoff was a greater risk of detection by those who would wish her ill.

On her Bridge, Murrue Ramius gazed tautly out the forward viewport, entire body tense. "ETA to their location?" she asked tightly.

"At present speed, five minutes, Murrue," Miriallia Haw replied from CIC, her own voice grim. Having known Kira and Kevin for several years now, she was close to them both… and the time since Heliopolis fell had also brought her close to Cagalli, despite the other girl's noble birth. Losing any one of them…

Be careful, guys, she thought, uttering a silent prayer for their safety. We're coming. Just hold on a little longer… Miriallia could tell from the telemetry -relayed from Nemesis' quantum communications gear- that both Nemesis and Freedom were still intact… but that was all she could tell. Both of them were clearly too heavily engaged to make any reports.

Murrue nodded almost absently in response to the report. It was a relief to know they'd be arriving soon… but she was a highly experienced naval officer herself. She knew how long five minutes could be on the battlefield, especially in a mobile suit duel. Even with the skill of her friend and their mutual adopted brother, five minutes could well be too long in this situation.

Leona will be there soon, too, she reminded herself, forcing some of her muscles to relax. Her G-tolerance isn't as high as Kevin's, but Saber can still pull a much higher acceleration than we can. When it's three on one, even Leviathan should be hard-pressed to defeat them all.

"It'll be okay, Murrue," Andrew Waltfeld told her, swiveling in the copilot's seat to face her. "Remember, Racher's survived almost everything that's ever been thrown at him, and come back even from the things he didn't. And Kira… well, you know even better than I do how good he is. They'll make it."

Murrue took a deep breath. "Yes," she said quietly, shoulders relaxing a fraction. "Yes, you're right. Thank-"

A sharp inhalation from CIC interrupted her, as Mir's displays suddenly changed. On Nemesis' status display, a new indicator appeared… one of lurid red, displaying an advancing, jagged line, fluctuating in a pattern she found all too familiar. "Murrue, Kevin's alpha waves just changed! The pattern… he's fully activated ZERO!"

Every muscle that had managed to relax now tightened again, and Murrue breathed a curse she'd learned from Kevin. Unlike most, including Cagalli and Kira, she knew exactly what Kevin had seen -and almost done- the one time he'd fully initiated the 2.0 version of ZERO. She knew why he refused to use it to its fullest extent, and preferred not to activate it at all.

If he had activated it now, that meant two things: that there was a possibility of the same "accident" happening again… and that Kevin believed he had no other chance of defeating his opponent.

"Arnold," she heard someone else say with her voice, "redline the engines. I want us in range of that battle now."

Synthetic lightning crackled across the sky, blasting out with booms resembling thunder, as a pair of twin buster rifles fired on one another in the twilight. Each bolt packed enough energy to turn most mobile suits into molten metal and free hydrogen in an instant… or turn the landscape below into something resembling the surface of the moon.

It was like a duel at ten paces with rocket launchers… especially considering the systems in use by both parties.

Kira cursed, snapping up Freedom's shield as one of Leviathan's azure bolts came all too close to vaporizing him. "This isn't good," he muttered to Cagalli. "He was bad enough last time; if he's got a ZERO system online in there…" The cockpit lit up with a bright blue glow, as the buster rifle shot expended its fury against the antibeam shield, but the tough defense held even against its might.

The instant the beam faded, Kira snapped up his Lupus rifle, triggering a bolt of coherent green light toward the madly-dancing enemy machine. Flashing across the sky, it would've pierced even Leviathan's Gundanium armor… had it connected.

At the same moment, Kevin had also sent an azure beam of his own toward Leviathan, and the two together should have given Carnehan a blinding headache -to say the least- but the zombie-like Destroyer was operating under different constraints from his opponents. With the tactical advantage ZERO gave him, he managed to anticipate the attacks, and spun in such a way that the twin beams were coming from either side.

At the instant of impact, Leviathan's forearms glowed, web-like shields of ethereal light flaring into existence. With a painfully bright flash, blue and green bolt alike spattered harmlessly against the immaterial defense.

A split second later, Carnehan dropped his shields, swung his buster rifle to point directly to his right, and fired a high-powered blast at Nemesis. Pumping more energy into it than Kevin had for his own shot, the Kraken's resulting shot was fully large enough to burn away Nemesis' entire body… and then some.

But you're not the only one using ZERO now, Kevin thought, almost unnaturally calm.

Nemesis' thrusters flared, boosting it twenty meters straight up an instant before Leviathan actually fired. Mid-boost, its rifle came up again, and Kevin launched yet another azure streak across the sky.

Only to find, as he'd unfortunately expected, that Leviathan had already moved, having anticipated the exact timing and direction of the attack.

Kira swore again, more vehemently, and threw Freedom into a cartwheel to the left, letting the errant bolt scorch past, impacting on the water below with the force of a medium-sized bomb. This is insane, he thought, briefly reaching back to help steady Cagalli after the violent maneuver. One pilot doing that is bad enough; when both combatants can tell what the other is about to do, it's total chaos! "What's the point in this battle, anyway?" he demanded, snapping into HiMAT configuration. "Carnehan! Why are you doing this?"

"You could never understand, Yamato," Kraken sneered, stowing his rifle. "You and your pampered life… you could never understand what the Destroyers experienced! You don't know how hard our training was… or how horrifying the Project's end was, when Hydra tried to blow us all to hell! You can't understand the betrayal we suffered that day… or the twisted bond I will end tonight!"

"You're wrong," Kira replied, eyes flashing angrily. "I know Kevin better than you ever could! I've seen his suffering in ways that you can't imagine!" His rifle came up, plasma cannons snapped forward, and Xiphias rail cannons unfolded at his hips. "And you're nothing but a vengeful ghost!"

Twin red-orange plasma bolts, a streak of emerald laser light, and a pair of hyper-velocity slugs tore out into the sky… and then the process repeated itself, again and again, as fast as Freedom's weapons could cycle.

Leviathan unfolded, fuselage snapping into mobile armor mode, and Carnehan rolled furiously, dodging and weaving through the onslaught. "Is that so?" he said contemptuously… a contempt tinged by the faintest trace of surprise, as a rail cannon slug ricocheted off his right wing. "How can someone like you understand? You're just a human!"

A bolt of synthetic lightning nearly ripped his nose before he could pull away. "He may only be a human," Kevin said coldly, "but he's right. You're already dead, Mike… we've both died already! My original body is radioactive dust, you're only maintained by your nanomachines… This conflict should've ended years before. You should never have been brought back!"

"A bit late for you to be saying that, Kevin," Mike retorted, sending a mental command to Leviathan's transformation systems. "Like you said, you've already died, too, more than once… and you're the one who killed me, so can the self-righteous garbage! We're both ghosts who don't belong in this world, and I intend to rectify that today!" Leviathan's legs swung down, its arms popping out as it converted to GERWALK mode; with a blast from its foot-mounted thrusters, it darted backward, allowing another barrage from Freedom to scorch past.

Kevin swore viciously in Russian. This is insane, he thought. This entire battle… If this keeps up, we'll all get fried, just like he says. Another, more chilling thought occurred to him. And if Leviathan's reactor goes critical…!

"This is the destiny we've followed our entire lives, Kevin," Carnehan called, snapping back into mobile suit mode. "From the day we were born, the wheels of destiny were set in motion; our twisted genesis led us down this path, to the inevitable end." From Leviathan's right wrist, a blade of frozen, azure lightning flickered to life, and its back-mounted verniers went to full power, launching it across the sky toward Nemesis.

"What are you talking about, Mike?" Kevin demanded. Without waiting for a reply, he tossed his twin buster rifle skyward, reached up to his shoulder, and snatched out a saber of his own, igniting the azure blade with less than a second to spare; it had barely extended to its full length before Leviathan's blade crashed into it, nearly wrenching it from Nemesis' grip.

Blue sparks flew in all directions, flung out by the clashing blades, as each machine struggled for dominance in the clash. Leviathan's power vied with Nemesis', struggling for the upper hand, to push past the older machine's defenses… but in this Leviathan's tremendous power was not enough of an advantage. Great power flowed through its engines and weapons, but both mobile suits were born of Gundanium alloy; in a battle of brute physical strength, they were still effectively even.

"What I'm talking about is our intended roles," Carnehan said now, speaking through gritted teeth as he struggled against Kevin's blade. "I know now what I was ignorant of at Banadiya, of our connection… and of the long, twisted path we were intended for. You're still ignorant of the truth, Kevin! You still fail to understand that this is our destiny, that the only way out for us is through this battle!"

"I don't know what you're-"

Kevin's voice cut off, and his eyes went wide, for the regular universe abruptly vanished around him. As though through a haze, he watched himself command Nemesis' leg to kick out, forcing Leviathan back a pace. Knocked off balance, the powerful machine almost instantly began to recover, but to Kevin's senses it seemed slow, so slow… and he had all the time in the world to dash forward himself, easily crossing the distance before Kraken could recover.

His blade licked out, slashing up in a vicious backhand stroke. Arcing in from below Leviathan's own blade, the frozen lightning bolt scythed into the underside of Leviathan's right wrist; the Gundanium resisted, refusing to instantly succumb to even Nemesis' weapon, but even it couldn't hold long. Metal vaporized, burned away, power cables shorted out and exploded, hydraulic lines burst as their contents superheated, and then the blade tore out through the saber emitter on the top of the wrist.

With a small explosion, Leviathan's forearm ripped away, spiraling out into open sky.

Kraken uttered a sound of shocked anger. Reaching for his own rifle with Leviathan's remaining hand, his fingers started to wrap around its grip… but Nemesis' own hand had dropped its saber, freeing it to reach out and catch its falling buster rifle.

Without a pause, Kevin brought the rifle up to firing position, switched it to full power, and pulled the trigger.

A titanic column of azure energy, fed by Nemesis' antimatter reactor, erupted from the buster rifle's muzzle. A full eighteen meters in diameter at its widest, it smashed into Leviathan, engulfing it in a terrible blaze of energy even Gundanium was helpless against; phase-shift boiled away, armor melted under the ferocious onslaught-

And with a final scream from Michael Carnehan, the azure stream consumed Leviathan, smashing apart its outer layers in an explosion of shrapnel, swallowing whole the inner frame… before the entire machine blew apart at the seams, its scattered shrapnel wiped from the face of the universe before the all-consuming beam.

Then, to Kevin's horror, the column of manmade lightning kept right on going… and smashed headlong into the Freedom.

As the antimatter conflagration burned Kira Yamato's machine away -taking Cagalli Yula Athha with it- Kevin Walker's scream of anguish was more tiger's roar than human cry…

The good ship Minerva had just settled -carefully- to the ground outside when Invictus stepped out of the lab. His eyes automatically adjusting to the slight change in lighting, he took up a position next to the main entrance, deciding to simply wait for someone to come out and meet him.

It's times like this that I miss my armor, the assassin thought inconsequentially. I've lived so long in the shadows that it feels strange to stand here in plain sight… Hah; I'm starting to sound like Tolle. These are allies we're talking about -at least for now- and I'll have my battlesuit back soon enough…

Shinn and Rey, he noticed, were already limping toward the ship even before a hatch opened; and it wasn't hard for him to understand why, when he took note of the fact that Rey seemed barely conscious. Exactly what was happening to him, Invictus didn't know, but it clearly wasn't good.

Within moments, one of Minerva's hatches did open, disgorging half a dozen armed ZAFT soldiers, wearing body armor instead of their green coats and bearing automatic rifles. They fanned out to either side, taking up defensive positions; only then did the ship's doctor and two orderlies come out at a trot, carrying a stretcher.

"Doctor!" Shinn called, managing to pick up the pace despite his friend's semi-deadweight. "Something's wrong with Rey. He started gasping, and-"

"We'll take it from here," the doctor assured him, and motioned for the orderlies to get Rey onto the stretcher. "And you'd better get to the Infirmary, as well, Shinn," he added, pointing him toward the hatch.

The pilot blinked. "Me?" he said. "Doctor, I'm fine, it's Rey who-"

"We don't know what happened yet," the doctor told him firmly. "If it was something inside that lab, you might be affected, as well, especially with your close contact with Rey on the way out here. We need to make sure you're not affected." Reaching out to grip Shinn's shoulder, he turned back to the ship and began guiding the youth inside, ignoring any further protests.

As they departed, Talia Gladys and Arthur Trine passed them on their way off the ship, both wearing expressions of concern. Not that it was surprising, considering that -among other things- the two pilots represented two-thirds of their available mobile suit strength, what with Athrun still absent and Heine still recovering from his wounds..

Talia spotted Invictus immediately, and quickly walked over to him. "What's going on here, Invictus?" she asked without preamble. "What is this place, and what happened to Rey?"

Invictus shrugged. "I don't have the slightest idea what happened to Rey; it looks almost like a heart attack, but that doesn't seem to make sense. It also doesn't appear to be contagious, since Shinn hasn't been affected." He didn't bother to point out that he and Carter were likewise fine; they were even less vulnerable to environmental hazards than standard Coordinators, what with the enhancements. "As for what this place is… I think you'd better see for yourself, Ma'am. It's not a pleasant sight, but it is important."

She looked at him through narrowed eyes. "And just how 'important' are we talking about, Invictus?" she asked carefully. "Scientifically important, militarily important, politically…?"

The assassin sighed. "More like 'Shinn Asuka is about to be obsolete' important, Captain. Just to start off with the bad news, we found records of Orga Sabnak, Shani Andras, and Clotho Buer here."

Trine went white. "Biological CPUs?" he whispered. "They were made here?"

"Right. And that's only the bad news." Invictus jerked his head toward the lab, expression grim. "I don't care to discuss this out in the open, so follow me if you want to see the worse news."

If Trine had been horrified by the thought of Lodonia being responsible for the creation of the biological CPUs, he was positively stricken by the sight of the tube-encased corpses waiting within… and, as nearly as Invictus could tell, nearly rendered catatonic by the other revelation within the lab.

"This… this can't be," he whispered, gaze flicking rapidly between the children's bodies and the metal-enhanced corpse Carter had hauled out of the other lab chamber.

"How… how can anyone bring themselves to do this to people?"

"Believe me, Trine, this isn't the worst I've ever encountered," Carter said grimly. "You might ask my elder 'brother' what he went through… but yeah," he admitted quietly, "it's pretty bad. And frankly, I haven't the foggiest idea what happened here in the end. It… looks like they started killing each other, and not all that long ago."

"…I think we may all be better off because of it," Talia said softly, staring at the proto-Destroyer corpse. "Jack, Invictus… you're sure these are Destroyer copies?"

"In a manner of speaking," Carter confirmed. "They're not direct copies; the Earth Alliance has never had augmented corpses to examine in detail. But inspired by them? No doubt about it." He nodded at the room he'd pulled the body from. "I hacked the records they didn't quite manage to erase. The techniques are crude, but these are cybernetic organisms, to a far greater extent than any biological CPU."

Trine swallowed hard, trying not to vomit. He was a soldier; he was well accustomed to violence, especially after Minerva launched from Armory One. But… he was a naval officer, not a ground-pounder. His battles were impersonal, fought with missiles and energy fire, at long distance and with several meters of metal separating the people involved from the outside world. He'd seen the occasional aftermath of even that, especially after half of Minerva's bow exploded, but this…

"I never thought I'd see the day," he whispered. "This kind of atrocity… and Earth Alliance cyborgs? This is not good."

"Don't call them cyborgs," Invictus snapped, almost reflexively. "Even they deserve more respect than that; we're not monsters out of some cyberpunk novel." He shook his head. "It was inevitable, unfortunately. It was one thing when the only augmented soldier the world knew was Kevin Walker; one example isn't really enough to use as a basis. But with Delta, the two of us, and the others…" The assassin sighed. "One thing is for sure: this war is going to get very interesting soon… in the sense of the Chinese curse."

"Presupposing that this wasn't their only cybernetic research facility," Talia pointed out, tearing her gaze away from Orik's carcass. "And even if it wasn't… You two would be in a better position to judge: just how effective would they even be? These are just augmented Naturals, not Coordinators, right?"

"True," Carter admitted. "Cybernetics don't magically grant everyone the same level of ability simply from receiving the enhancements; it takes a great deal of training -especially if they don't have an adequate source for the RNA part of the treatment- and even there, the strength and reaction time varies based upon what the subject originally had. So yes, Natural Destroyers would be less capable than one of us. That doesn't mean they'd be useless, though; best case, they'd be at least twice as effective as any biological CPU. Worst case…"

He didn't finish the statement, and Talia was just as glad. She didn't think she really wanted to know what the "worst case" was.

Gil has to be informed of this as soon as possible, she thought, taking refuge in professional responsibility. Commander Arkanian, too. If the Earth Forces do have fully-operational Destroyer analogues -and it would be insane to assume these corpses were the only test subjects- then this war just got a lot more complicated… and more dangerous.

Though speaking of these corpses… what happened here, anyway?

Turning to Carter, Talia gestured at the dead body. "Do you have any idea what happened here, Jack? Why all these people are dead, and the lab itself in shambles?"

The clone soldier shrugged. "With all the wreckage around, it's hard to be sure," he admitted. "But it looks like it was some kind of internal dispute… if you can call murdering each other something that banal. Judging from the records I was able to recover, they got orders to shut down the facility; if I had to guess, it was because of Minerva and Dominion setting up shop too close by. Anyway, 'shutting down the facility' appears to have included… removing the test subjects."

"Sweeping the evidence under the rug," Invictus confirmed, visibly disgusted. "All the subjects would be 'neutralized' and disposed of… and that's probably where the trouble began. It looks like at least some of the staffers still had lingering traces of a conscience, and they started shooting at those who didn't. Then the augmented subjects got into the act, and, well…"

Talia nodded in understanding. With that much shooting -and, knowing Destroyers, brute force smashing- going on, it was hardly surprising that, however wrecked it had gotten in the process, the lab was still recognizable. Mostly likely, everyone in it had been dead long before they could get around to disposing of all the evidence.

"Well," she said at length, "I'm certain the Homeland is going to be very interested in hearing about this… and in gathering all the information about it that they can. Arthur," she said, turning to her exec, "get Aves and Alexander in here. We're going to pack up every salvageable piece of equipment and all the bodies; I want them put in storage aboard Minerva, in preparation for transfer to one of our bases."

"Ma'am?" Trine shook himself, trying to shove enough of the horror out of his mind to function properly. "Yes, Ma'am! Right away!"

As he turned and trotted off -gratefully- Talia turned back to the super-soldiers. "Jack, Invictus, I'll want both of you to look them over, as well," she said quietly, "once we've got them aboard. And I'll want specialists from Dominion in on this. I don't like the looks of this at all."

"Believe me, Captain," Invictus said, voice equally quiet, "we don't either. I remember the ABADDON program; I don't want even more of our kind running around… especially not on the side of the Earth Alliance."

The depths of space were bleak at the best of times. Stunning and awe-inspiring, with a kind of cold, stark beauty, the expanse of the void was still a terribly forbidding place, dark and unforgiving… and that unforgiving nature was only enhanced by the fury of combat.

Kevin Walker's glowing jade eyes were as cold as the space surrounding him as he tracked his opponent, firing twin azure bolts and endless bursts of tungsten penetrators. His machine's wings were split open, forming an "X" whose gaps blazed with rainbow energy, propelling him across space at velocities few machines could match… yet his opponent still lived on.

"Kevin," a voice was saying urgently in his left mastoid, "remember! Les Enfant Terribles is-!"

"You always did talk too much," Kevin's opponent remarked… and raised his weapon.

The machine, resembling the Nemesis, lifted the twin buster rifle it held, and pointed it almost lazily at an Agamemnon-class battleship. Before Kevin or the ship could begin to react, the weapon's muzzle glowed… and a titanic burst of azure energy erupted from it, slamming full-force into the Agamemnon.

Watching it begin to melt away, dissolved by the powerful blast, Kevin uttered a sound more tiger's rage than human's anguish, and snapped up his rifles, simultaneously flipping open his machine cannons. Sending his machine into a violent, unpredictable tumble, he opened fire-

A narrow, emerald dart seared across Kevin's vision, obliterating the scene before him.

The laser beam also obliterated Leviathan's right saber emitter, melting clean through and blasting it apart in a hail of sparks and debris.

Nemesis and Leviathan tumbled out of their blade clash, and Kevin Walker came back to himself with a wrenching gasp, breathing raggedly as he fought for control. Reality had reasserted itself at last, and with an effort that seemed almost titanic he yanked his hand free of Nemesis' neural interface. Activating manual control with his left hand, his right darted forward, almost breaking the red switch in his haste to shut down ZERO.

"Kevin!" Kira called, hurling Freedom across the sky. "Kevin, are you alright?"

Breathing heavily, entire body soaked with sweat, Kevin managed a nod. "Yeah… yeah, I'm here," he said, voice as ragged as his breathing. "I'm… I'm not exactly okay, but I'll live." He nodded gratefully at his friend. "Thanks, tovarisch. Almost… didn't make it out of that one."

Still clinging to the side of Kira's seat, Cagalli heaved a heartfelt sigh of relief. "You idiot," she breathed. "Do you know how worried I was? First you freeze up, then you start making that unearthly roaring-"

"He'll have more to roar about in a second!" Carnehan hissed angrily. Leviathan's thrusters flared with brutal power, reasserting its stability, and its hand darted down to its right thigh. Its wrist still sparking from the explosion of the saber emitter, Kraken had neither any desire to risk the buster rifle yet nor the patience to reach for it… and he didn't need it.

Leviathan's hand came back up in a flash, clutching one of the machine's beam revolvers; and while they weren't buster-class weapons, they would be more than sufficient to punch through Freedom's armor. With the added advantage of being lighter and less unwieldy that the twin buster rifle, it also came up much faster, faster than Kira expected… and aimed with the keen eye and lightning reflexes of a Destroyer.

"Stay out of this," Carnehan snarled now. "This has nothing to do with-"

Had Leviathan not been equipped with phase-shift armor, even its Gundanium armor would've failed under the wrenching impact that crashed into its main thruster assembly.

The blue bolt went wide, scorching off into the evening sky -frying a hapless seagull two kilometers away- and Leviathan fell away, staggered again. "What the hell! Who did that?" Carnehan demanded, snapping his machine into mobile armor mode. "ZERO-"

"My, my," a softly-accented voice said, as though disappointed. "You really are a bit too much of a monomaniac, you know that? Unlike Nemesis, I, at least, should've shown up on your radar… which you might've noticed, if you weren't quite so intent on frying my boss."

Cagalli glanced at the cockpit's starboard monitor, and exhaled in relief once more. "Good timing, Leona," she called. "This guy's a tough one."

Directly behind the space Leviathan had occupied when it attempted to shoot Freedom, the steel-gray form of Leona Colde's Saber, holding the main blade of Illumina in one hand, hovered easily, wing racks open.

"Yes," Leona agreed, "I can see that. If it wasn't, between the two of you you'd have already reduced him to ash." Her face appearing on Freedom's right communication screen, the newly-minted Destroyer smiled. "Shall we finish the job now? I think this has gone on quite long enough."

Kira blinked… then nodded, smiling thinly. "Yeah," he agreed. "Let's do it." He'd started off the battle disliking Carnehan, if only for trying to kill one of his best friends (and, of course, the small matter of what he'd almost done to Cagalli back in Banadiya); now, having seen some of what Kevin had gone through during his momentary freeze via their link, he really wanted to end it… before anything else could happen to Kevin.

And, just incidentally, before Carnehan finally adjusted to Freedom's attack patterns and blasted it into scrap, too.

"All right, then. Oh, and Colonel?" Leona added, turning to Nemesis. "Pull back a little, please. You nearly got me with one of your errant shots, when you two kept dodging everything you threw at each other before it was even fired. Oh, and I'd really not care to risk having you freeze up in the middle of the battle again."

"But I…" Kevin's voice faded. He was loathe to abandon the battle; he regarded anything and everything to do with the Destroyers to be his personal responsibility, Mike Carnehan in particular. Resurrected with naught but the thought of revenging himself upon Kevin in his mind, the Kraken also piloted Kevin's own brainchild, one which he was not at all convinced Freedom or Saber could defeat.

Yet… he had also just received a very potent lesson in his own limitations. Kevin's skill was on par with that of Athrun, but against his own brethren, his own mind was uncertain. Moreover, the tool he needed in order to battle Foxhound on even terms -ZERO- was counterbalanced by Foxhound's own version.

And by the effects it had on his mind, effects which he feared more than even the prospect of once again killing Mike.

Reaching a decision, Kevin grasped Nemesis' controls, hit a switch, and flipped the machine into mobile armor mode. "I leave the rest of the battle to you," he said softly. "But if Mike survives to escape Foxhound, I'm coming back."

"We know, Kevin," Kira assured him, voice equally quiet. "Now get going… and be careful."

"You're the one who needs to be careful," Kevin retorted, pointed Nemesis' nose toward the sky. "Cagalli…"

"I'll be fine, Kevin," Cagalli told him, staring into his eyes on the monitor. "We all will. Go."

"Affirm, Milady." Nemesis' thrusters kicked in with brutal force, launching the machine into a zoom climb that would soon have it far above the battlefield.

Lips curling back in a snarl, Kraken pointed Foxhound's own nose skyward. "Don't think you're getting away, Hydra. This battle is between us!"

Before he could charge off in Nemesis' wake, though, a burst of azure lightning scorched past his nose. "You're not going anywhere, Kraken," Leona said coldly, holding Illumina in one hand and Saber's buster rifle in the other. "We are your opponents now."

And you're facing more than you know, Kraken, she thought to herself, glowing gaze fixed on the powerful prototype. Mon ami recruited me in part to kill him, if the need arose… and while I do not intend to carry out those orders, I have undergone intensive training aimed at that very objective.

Let's see how my training has paid off….

"Meddling bastards," Carnehan snarled. "This has nothing to do with you!" He snapped Foxhound back into mobile suit mode, and ignited his remaining saber emitter. "Nothing!"

Kira responded by pulling out a blade of his own, the frozen fire that blazed to life contrasting with Foxhound's harnessed lightning. "You just don't get it at all," he said, shaking his head. "You go after one of us; you go after all of us. Kevin's my friend… and his enemies are mine."

"Fine! Fine!" Carnehan yanked out his twin buster rifle, angry enough to ignore the possible repercussions of his hand's earlier damage. "If you want to get in my way, then I'll just kill all of you first. I'll send you all to hell before us!"

"Saber, exterminating the target!" shouted Leona in response, eager to grant Kraken's death wish as Freedom and Saber charged as one towards their solitary foe.

Azure, emerald, and fiery orange energy flashed back and forth across the sky, three mobile suits rushed to engage one another, and Kevin Walker closed his eyes, unable to watch the conflict below as Nemesis soared above it all…

Author's note:

Promises are made, revelations are heard, and the truth because ever darker. Athrun Zala makes peace with his friends, while his ship discovers a terrible secret of the Earth Alliance, one with the potential to alter the face of the conflict… and even as he departs to return to them, a final conflict between brothers begins.

This time, only one will walk away alive…

Yep, it's been a year now since I updated this; and for that, I apologize. This one wasn't even work-related, either. Just didn't have any real inspiration for it for quite a while.

Matter of fact, this chapter was supposed to be longer than this… but, since it was getting pretty obvious I wasn't going to be able to do the whole thing properly for a while yet, I figured I'd best cut it off at the earliest possible moment, and go with that. Better a shorter update than none at all, after all this time.

So. A few important revelations in this chapter, I guess, and at least one big divergence from canon -I defy anyone to tell me Athrun was in character during the canon version of that scene!- plus the beginning of the end of one of my too-numerous subplots. Not sure I can vouch for the quality of this, considering how long it took to write… but I guess it probably isn't too disjointed, since it was written in a few big chunks, instead of lots of short spurts (like Cry of the Falcon's latest chapter).

Anyway, rambling over; and I think that's pretty much all I have left to say this time. Let me know if it was any good, while I try and get CotF's next chapter on track (presupposing I ever have time for anything but work and sleep). -Solid Shark