SUPER ROBOT WARS Z SPECIAL DISK
Walkthrough by Mark Neidengard ([email protected])
version 1.0

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EPISODE 1: Another Record
A serial side story (5 episodes) depicting the fighting with the Federation
Special Forces units, centered around the Titans and Phantom Pain, during
ZEUTH's battles with the Hundred Demon Empire in Japan.

---

When ZEUTH crossed from Siberia to Japan and became embroiled with fighting
the Hundred Demons Empire, the New Earth Federation was creating a Special
Forces battalion under the command of Colonel Roanoke.  What was this group,
created not only from military personnel but also from civilian supporters,
tasked with?  And who were the enemies they were to pursue?  The Special
Forces' battle, shrouded in mystery after mystery, begins here.

---

It is several months since the Multi-Dimensional World was created by the
Breaking of the world.  It was a time when the collision between various
powers, various nations, was escalating.  The greatest power in the Multi-
Dimensional World was the New Earth Federation.  Though it continued
assimilating one nation after another in the name of maintaining peace and
order, it became increasingly rocked by internecine power struggles.  Amidst
these intrigues, the Federation leadership issued a special order, thereby
creating a new special squadron.

---

Stage 1.1: Proclamation

At the Federation's New Ark base, Jerrid and Kaklicorn find out that they're
being transferred to the Special Forces.  They both hope it's the Special
Forces group tasked with hunting the Yugo and Zaft, and Jerrid is especially
keen to strike down the composite force of anti-alien mecha and anti-Federation
sympathizers before they become an even bigger threat.  Jamaican, however,
tells them to calm down and listen to what their mission will actually be.

Briefing them is Sirocco, who tells Jamaican sardonically to convey thanks to
Colonel Basque for loaning him two ace pilots.  Jamaican is privately
infuriated at the purple-haired Jovian for using Supreme Commander Jamitov's
influence to get what he wants, but he doesn't openly defy either.  Sirocco
tells the somewhat uncertain pilots that they'll be paired up with the gifted
Lieutenant Mauer in his new squadron.

While Sirocco confirms Jerrid's belief that the Yugo and their collaborators
in ZEUTH _will_become_ a threat at some point, he's in no hurry to nip them in
the bud.  He's got something else in mind before this squadron becomes part
of the ZEUTH hunt, and he prefers to have his front-line commander explain.
He leads the pilots to the briefing room, where they get to meet the rest of
their hand-picked comrades.  At least some of them seem to be quite un-
soldierly in their lack of discipline, but Neo Roanoke is just the man to keep
them on task... or so Sirocco hopes.  He leaves Neo to do the actual briefing,
reminding everyone that the top brass have very high hopes for the team.

Privately thinking that it's easier to hope high than to achieve high, Neo
kicks off a round of introductions.  Anemone wants to know why he wears a mask,
and is quite impressed when he answers directly that it's to cover a major head
wound he suffered in the past (he assures the team that any small gaps in his
memory don't impede his abilities as a soldier).  Sting and Owl aren't exactly
the most sociable of people, and they certainly don't show much deference to
their superior officer.  This bugs the militaristic Jerrid quite a bit, but
Kaklicorn tells him not to raise a fuss over something as peripheral as that.
Stella is on hand too, and isn't saying much.  Anemone on the other hand has
plenty to say, and isn't about to let the soldiers look down on her for being a
pink- haired little kid.  Dominic meanwhile  is more than just a chaperone for
the impetuous KLF rider -- he's also the team's staff officer.  And then
there's Jurgens, the commander of the ship that will ferry the team around.  He
hopes no one has any plans to second-guess his commands on the front lines.

Rounding out the team are Raven and Shuran, hailing from Eidel Bernal's
personal "Chimera" squadron.  Since the Chimera are mostly concerned with
looking after the U.N. infrastructure far from the front lines, it's only
natural the regular army types haven't heard of them.  Like Jerrid and the rest
of the team, Neo is looking forward to them proving their real worth on the
battlefield.  The team will have many civilian collaborators, maintenance
support personnel, and others who aren't present for the briefing to help out.

Before he gets around to actually stating the purpose of the squadron, klaxons
erupt with an air raid warning: someone has found out about this new squadron,
and wants them stopped in their tracks.  Since there hasn't been any time to
form into squadrons, Neo wants everyone to show what they can do solo for
today.

Anemone's KLF, "Nirvash the End", is pretty weird-looking, and Sting wonders if
it's a custom type or something.  Shuran recognizes "Nirvash" as the same name
as the famous LFO that started the whole Lif'ing movement, and Dominic cautions
Anemone not to get too carried away -- this mission is as much test flight as
it is actual battle for her.  She tells him to stuff it, and to be sure to
tell Dewey just how cool she's about to be.  Kaklicorn was more right than he
thought about Dominic being Anemone's chaperone, and Jerrid points out that
the Gabslay they're flying in are still in the testing stage as well.  While
the Titans folks try to get their act together, the SEED pilots feel fairly
confident about their mecha and battle-honed teamwork.  Raven whines a bit to
Shuran that they'd better not let these others eclipse the proud Chimera
squadron, and Shuran tells the "lion's whelp" to just fight like he always
does.

The opposition are in fact Yugo and Zaft units, and it's pretty clear they're
here for the newly-formed special forces.  Time to show the impudent spacenoids
just how special these special forces are!  And preferably do it within three
turns.

 Dominic muses that this is just the prologue for The End and Anemone: once
 this squadron's mission is over, their real battle will begin.  Which, given
 what Anemone is like when she's in the cockpit, isn't entirely a happy
 prospect.

The team performs well enough that even Jurgens is impressed.  Neo is getting
exactly what he and his superiors wanted: overwhelming combat cloutfulness.
He tells his subordinates that they're now officially Special Forces Unit 013:
a bit sterile, but hey.  Neo admits that this last battle was a bit of a test
in his eyes, and of course everyone passed.  Anemone's glad that her teammates
won't be tripping her up at least, and when Raven tries telling her not to
pick fights she quickly learns that he's somehow afraid of her.  Hmmm.

Anyway, time for the mission statement at last.  One: pursue the Unknown
called "BG".  Two: capture the "BG", or shoot it down if capture proves
unfeasible.  "BG" stands for Black Gale, a mech that's been popping up all over
the place and causing trouble for the Feds.  Sounds ominous...


Stage 1.2: Contact

Dewey and Sirocco both find it weird that the Federation would go to the
trouble of assembling an entire Special Forces unit just to pursue one enemy
mech.  The orders came from Lode Jibril, but Dewey's heard the suggestion
came from someone else: Eidel Bernal.  This wouldn't be the first time she's
pulled strings behind the scenes, and both commanders suspect that Jibril is
trying to consolidate his grip on Logos so he can bump off its aging ruling
cadre.  Not, they think, that Jibril can actually put Eidel and her private
army to good use.  They'd rather do that themselves, appealing to Eidel's
stated love of law & order to bring their Crusade plan closer to reality.  Time
to bring the charismatic brigadier general into their fold.

Aboard the 013 flagship Izumo, Dominic shares all the info on the BG he's got
-- which is to say, not much.  It's either a single mech or a small group of
them, whose pilot and place of origin are both question marks.  One might
suppose that it's a threat to the Federation, since the Feds are using their
army to hunt it, but Dominic finds no specific records of damage it's caused.
Whatever it is, it has to be DAMN important for accounts of its existence to
be suppressed... and damn dangerous if someone figures this powerful a team is
needed to bring it to heel.  Dominic knows a few people he can ask for more
info, but tells the team not to expect too much.

Neo muses that tailing a mysterious, hazardous foe like this sounds like the
opposite of a picnic, though it's an open question whether it's better or
worse than facing off against the flying ninja death squadroneers known as
the ZEUTH.  Neo reckons that will be the 013's next job once the BG is dealt
with, but that could be indefinitely far off if they can't even locate the
BG.  The ZEUTH are currently tangling with the sentient aberrations known as
the Hundred Demons, so the sooner the 013 finish their job, the better their
odds against the ZEUTH will be.  Some of the civilian collaborators Neo
alluded to are en route to the Izumo even now, and the irony isn't lost on
Neo or Jurgens that the 013 will be every bit as motley a crew as the ZEUTH
themselves before all is said and done.  Pretty irregular no matter how you
slice it.

Meanwhile, a drama is unfolding in the hangar.  Kaklicorn has spied Gulliver
in the shadows, a odd-looking critter that Mauer figures is someone's pet.
Kaklicorn is afraid it's going to bite someone, but that seems somehow
unlikely given how passive it's being.  Anemone rushes over and happily
reclaims her little friend, professing that it's overjoyed to see her (not
that you could tell from its vacant expression).  Stella actually speaks up
and asks if she can pat it, smiling for the first time in ages when Anemone
lets her stroke its soft fur.  Jerrid advises Kaklicorn to chill out about
the critter and get used to the fact that life in the Special Forces is less
regimented than the regular army.  What matters to him are results, and the
power to protect that which is precious -- a lesson he learned at the cost of
considerable pain.  He tells Mauer that he means to become stronger, and will
use this Special Forces posting to grow as much as possible.  And from what
he's seen, his back will be a lot safer with her around to guard it.

The romantic stuff gets cut off by the scramble siren: the team has already
caught up with the BG!  Time to rock'n'roll!  Neo reminds the team that their
top priority is trying to capture the BG, and tries hailing it on an open
channel.  "BG" turns out to be Asakim and Tsiine, and Asakim isn't very amused
at Neo's instructions to disarm and surrender.  Tsiine points out that "she"
is the one who gathered these troops, and wonders if the two of them should
take Neo up on his offer to fight it out instead.  Asakim says that the time
isn't yet ripe, and means to let a certain group of newcomers do the fighting
for him.

The 013 quickly detect a Dimensional Quake, from which emerge a group of
Fallen Angels.  The disgusting apparitions are the enemy of mankind, and seem
to be on work furlough or something from the karmic prison that binds them.
Asakim muses that they seem drawn by the similar ties that bind him, and
abruptly zooms off before any more of his time is wasted here.  Neo tells his
troops that the Fallen Angels are a higher priority than pursuing the BG, and
warns them to take the tough foes down one by one through concentrated fire.

 The Fallen Angels don't stick around long, vanishing as abruptly as they
 came a couple turns into the battle.  In their place appear a horde of
 Hundred Demons units, apparently in pursuit of data on the mysterious Fallens.
 Trashing the humans will make the lost opportunity a bit less painful, or
 so the theory goes.  Unfortunately, they're about to meet Neo's civilian
 reinforcements: Artham and several members of the Siberian Rail Police.
 Among them is Zaky, who can't believe he's working with the Federation
 military after wearing out his welcome both at Siberian Rail and at Saint
 Reagan.  Cynthia loves the thought of battling these mythical Yapanese
 monsters, but Kejinan and friends are far less enthused.  Damn near all the
 other outcasts and misfits are on the scene too, including Holla and Gelaba,
 Timp, and Shagia and Olba.

It doesn't take long to deal with the newcomers, and Neo says that the BG can
be reacquired later.  For now, the whole team need to rendezvous and get
acquainted.  Dominic has been ordered by Dewey to secretly keep tabs on the
Frost brothers, which just further underscores the fact that there's more to
this squadron's mission statement than meets the eye.

After Neo thanks the Frost brothers for saving his team's bacon, Jurgens starts
bemoaning the fact that standard military doctrine can't work for such a
mixed-up squadron as the 013 has turned into.  Olba points out to him that
the ZEUTH are an even greater hodgepodge, and perhaps because of it have
achieved even greater success in battle.  Come to think of it, maybe the
Federation brass is trying to learn a bit about the ZEUTH by setting up their
own copy...  At any rate, Neo is still waiting for a few more helpers from
the Augusta base, which specializes in Newtype research.  The Frost brothers
don't like hearing about that, but gritting their teeth they inform Neo that
the Augusta folks are slated to meet up at the MacCornell Base.  Hopefully
some information on the BG will be waiting there too...

At the Bazaar, Cynthia and the Siberian Rail stooges are doing a bit of
shopping... or at least in Kejinan and Enge's case, being dragged shopping.
Cynthia's not worried about the possibility of a scramble, since she could just
catch up to the flagship in her Dominator... something her ground-bound
"bodyguards" can't say.  Cynthia's not shy about pointing out that they're
weaker than her, and while this privately infuriates Kejinan, it only
heightens Enge's infatuation with her... as though her cute little ass and
appealing almost-not-there breasts weren't enough of an enticement [hey, these
are his thoughts, not mine ^^;;;]

Things take a strange turn when Cynthia spies a pretty brooch.  It turns out
Anemone has spotted it too, and the two girls quickly order their respective
bodyguards to take each other out so the brooch can be theirs.  As violence
looms, Raven comes over to inform them all that free time is over.  He is quite
cowed by the women's wrath, so much so that both of them throw up their hands
in disgust and stalk back to base.  After they all troop off, a badly shaken
Raven confesses to Shuran that even if they are kids, those two are still
_women_ and hence much to be feared.  OH TEH SLASHIBILITIES!!!! [thud].

Stage 1.3: Wandering

The Second Stage pilots can only gape at the preposterous assortment of mecha
now sitting in the hangar.  Most preposterous of all is the hulking Psycho
Gundam, the very latest in shock armament.  Several of the Augusta pilots
come over to say hi, and Dominic recognizes them from his files as "Fortified
Humans" from the Newtype research labs.  Similar in their "special needs", Bran
notes, to Sting and Owl themselves.  Bran's been charged with overseeing
training exercises for the young Extendeds, and tells them that he'll afford
them the same respect as anyone else -- provided they earn it on the
battlefield.

For folks all hepped up on combat drugs, they seem to be doing relatively okay.
The same can't be said for Four, whose growing headache echoes her dread at
the approach of another tuning session in the Psycho Gundam.  Unfortunately
for her, she also knows that piloting it and fighting is the only way her
memories will return.  Wouldn't you know it -- up comes Stella, concerned at
Four's obvious discomfort.  Over Four's brief objections, Stella shows her a
little trick Neo showed her, laying her hands on Four's head to ease the pain.
Amazingly, the pain eases somewhat and Four is able to manage a smile as she
heads to the hangar.

Watching from the shadows are Cynthia and Anemone, who recognizes in Four a
kindred spirit of sorts.  There's more than enough angst, more than enough
reasons to fight despite the pain and the drugs, to start some kind of therapy
circle aboard this ship.  Anemone has Dewey to fight for, and Cynthia has
Kids -- neither of whom are remotely deserving of such loyalty, but hey.  The
scramble sirens cut short any further sympathizing.

Meanwhile, two shady characters run into each other in the park -- literally.
In an increasingly improbable turn, Koren and Beck of all people have had a
little run-in, and Beck threatens the hulking pilot with mayhem if he doesn't
offer a little recompense for the collision.  Koren mockingly tells him to use
shorter words, and is more than happy to throw down if Beck keeps it short;
the sun is about to set after all.  Beck isn't a big enough moron to take on
the hulking Koren bare-handed, and instead breaks out the heavy artillery for
reinforcements.

Beck loves the sight of Koren fleeing for his life down the street, but his
elation turns to anger when Koren fetches a mobile suit from somewhere in the
park.  He shouts at the muscle-headed Koren not to underestimate the Beck
Victory Deluxe, but before he can do much of anything, a barrage of artillery
strikes the whole area.  The culprit: aliens, natch.  Koren doesn't much fancy
these guys making a mess of the Earth Diana is working so hard to colonize,
and charges into the fray.  Whatever other character flaws he may have, Beck
likes to see someone else actually fighting for the Earth for a change, and
opts to help Koren out temporarily.

 The 013 show up in sort order, and recognize Beck and Koren's mecha at once.
 Neo wants to enlist their aid, which Beck is more than happy to offer if the
 price is right.  Neo ponders a second and says he'll pay based on results,
 which is good enough for Beck.  Four seems to have stabilized for the moment
 thanks to Stella's treatment, and Beck is looking forward to seeing the
 legendary Gundams in action.  Koren corrects him: it ain't a Gundam if it
 ain't white!  Err...

 Thanks to Beck and Koren's help, the city survives largely unscathed.  Good
 thing too, since there's lots of women and children to protect.  The sight of
 a mother and daughter cowering near by gets to Owl, reminding him somehow
 of his own mother.  Apparently that's a "block word" for him, and Neo hastily
 orders Sting and Stella to grab his mech so the whole team can pull out.  He
 tells Beck and Koren that this little incident has messed up his plans to
 pay them, but that he'll gladly give them their dough if they follow him for
 now.  As the team trudge home, Four now realizes too just how similar the
 lot of them are.

Once everyone is back at base, Neo explains to Bran that the Extended are
conditioned with Block Words in case one of them should go out of control.
Hearing the Block Word destroys their mental equilibrium, rendering them
incapable of combat.  This provision, as Bran is quick to suspect, was only
added after an entire Extended training facility was destroyed when one of its
"experiments" got out of hand... the same facility that Owl and the others are
from.  Bran isn't exactly thrilled at the thought of children being forced
to fight at someone else's pleasure, faced with mental meltdown and
imprisonment if they refuse.  However, he's a soldier first and foremost, and
intends to treat them as comrades-in-arms without prejudice or special
treatment so long as this war lasts.  Neo will leave it up to Bran to
explain today's mishap to any of the troops who harbor doubts.

Beck and Koren are being handled by Dominic and Artham -- Neo wants their
firepower added to the team if possible.  Though they make the team an even
more mixed-up affair, Neo finds that oddly fitting for this mixed-up world.
An underling enters to inform Neo that a shipment of materiel has just
arrived, along with a rather "weird" person...  That would be Jiei, self-
proclaimed "Dweller in Darkness" and engineer for the Chimera.

He's come bearing new mecha, and a load of nigh-incoherent lewd babble for
the rest of the pilots.  The mecha include the Bound Dock and Baialan, and he
tells Jerrid to give them a good shakedown flight or two.  The rest of the
team get a round of upgrades as well, but Jiei isn't the sort to be sent as a
mere delivery boy.  He's also got some secret orders, and is rather miffed
when Jerrid insists on leading him to Neo in Mauer's place.  No sense in
putting the woman in harm's way after all.

At the Bazaar, Four is finally feeling better from Stella's help.  Stella
walks by, and Four asks her to hang out with her and Rosamia.  Stella instead
says she has to go see Owl and Sting and walks off, leaving Rosamia and
Four to again ponder how similar the group of them are.  Four wishes they all
could get closer... not just for the sake of team cohesion, but as friends.


Stage 1.4: Meaning

No sooner has Jiei thrust the orders into Neo's hands than he's run off again,
busying himself with upgrading Beck's mech.  Amazingly, the new orders are
to postpone pursuit of the BG in the interest of providing security for the
test of a new mech.  Neo tells the Chimera pilots that they'd better say their
prayers: if the mighty 013 are being sent in as guards, it's almost guaranteed
that something bad will happen.  And for the record, Neo seems sure that the
guinea pigs in this test are the 013 themselves -- why else would they have
such an odd composition and run into trouble at every turn?  For that matter,
Neo suspects that the BG is either a red herring, or a _Federation_ unit that
the brass mean to bring the 013 into conflict with.  Shuran advises Neo not to
bother pondering the meaning behind the orders he's been given: anything other
than blind obedience will only cause unending pain given the confused state
of the world.  Both Raven and Neo are unimpressed, and as the Chimera pilots
head off for maintenance Neo is left to ponder how futile individual meaning
seems amidst the backdrop of clashing superpowers that is the world today.  He
himself may be part of the problem for simply following the orders he's given,
and if there's one thing he knows it's that life is over the moment thought
ends.

As if on cue, Jerrid comes in with questions about the purpose of the 013.  He
tells Neo that he's got his own opponent to face, and doesn't like spending
time on a mission whose goal he can't see.  Neo smiles at this, glad to see
someone with their own goals for a change.  He seems willing to fill Jerrid in
on his suspicions, but asks Jerrid first to tell him of this opponent he seeks
in the time before the next sortie.

In the meantime, Jiei finishes upgrades to Beck's new mech, much to Beck's
delight.  Artham and Timp have to admire Beck's balls in abusing his status as
a Special Force to spend military money on his own private toys.  The three of
them, all self-styled professionals, seem to get along pretty well... and all
share misgivings about the purpose of the 013.  Timp advises the others to
give the next mission their all _up_to_the_point_ where their lives might be
in danger.  After all, they all have their own opponents to confront after
this 013 silliness is over.

Dominic asks Jiei if he knows about this new secret weapon they're supposed to
be guarding, and since Jiei is a GENIUS of course he knows all about it.
However, he won't tell Dominic a word, since that would make it a NON-secret
weapon.  Anemone tells Dominic to leave the old guy be, certain that he's
just pretending to know anything.  Jiei is momentarily surprised, asking if
she's an Esper and telling her to take a look at some of the _other_ things
on his mind.  Skeevy.  _Extremely_ skeevy.  How skeevy, you ask?  Well, he
offers to give the adorable little Dominic a little bit of info in his ear,
and instead gives Dominic's ear the tongue.  S-K-E-E-V-Y beyond compare.  With
the threat of being crushed underfoot hanging over him, Jiei finally reveals
that the new weapon is code-named "Orange".  Any more than that they'll have to
see for themselves.

The test itself involves the Orange being carried in bomber, whose take off
the 013 are to guard.  Once the plane is safely off the ground, they're to
stay put until further orders are given.  There's been no sign of trouble so
far, and although Beck's new Beck the Great RX3 cuts an imposing figure, he's
feeling a bit antsy about not seeing any action.  The bomber finally takes off
and heads straight upward at considerable speed -- apparently the Orange is
to be dropped from high altitude.

Jerrid is very restless, but Neo reminds him to concentrate on the task at hand
for now.  Jerrid really really wants to get back to hunting down Camille, else
he'll never get on with his life.  Neo tells him that there _is_ a way to make
that happen, but before he can finish the sentence Dominic radios in with bad
news.  He's reading dimensional distortion in the vicinity of the bomber, and
Four is struck by a sudden, brief headache.  She sensed something like a
consciousness, or many consciousnesses, and the indications are that something
teleported into the area where the Orange is to be dropped.  Whatever the
something or somethings are, they're headed straight for the 013.

They're some kind of "monsters", and something in Koren's addled brain is
stirred by the moth-like wings and rainbow-colored sky.  The End of the World
is at hand, maybe.  Dominic mutters that those must be Coralians, and since
they ignore all hailing and start heading towards the nearest city, Neo sees
no choice but to attack them.  If those really are Coralians, then the Orange
must have something to do with the Ageha squadron...

 Beating down the first wave of the monsters results in a second wave
 arriving, but something odd is happening with them.  Unexpectedly, they all
 explode... or something.  This whole debacle has left a bad taste in all the
 pilots' mouths, but it seems unlikely that any explanation will be
 forthcoming from the top brass.  In fact, they've ordered Neo and the others
 to keep the whole operation AAA-grade secret (the highest level).  The
 Frost brothers, having seen mention of the Coralians in the Ageha files,
 realize that Dewey's plans must be very far along indeed.  Dominic likewise
 knows that he and Anemone are soon to face their real battle.  Jerrid can't
 bear it any more, and says out loud that he's through with the higher-ups
 using him as some sort of tool.

If there's a silver lining to the 013 apparently being thrown in harm's way
by the army, it's that its members are still self-possessed enough to demand an
explanation.  As the pilots angrily confront Neo, word comes in from HQ that
the BG has been located.  Neo orders everyone to get busy with pursuit, and
reminds Jerrid what he told him during the last sortie.  There _is_ a way for
him to get back to the ZEUTH hunt, and that way is to finish this 013 mission.
Once that happens, everyone should be able to return to their "normal" lives.
That sits just fine with all the pilots, united in their opinions for perhaps
the first time.

At the bazaar, Koren is still fretting over the impending end of the world,
mumbling about the Black History, Gundams and some higher power or other.  Beck
tries to snap him out of it, promising to take the big lug out drinking once
they collect their end-of-job bonus.


Stage 1.5: Black

Jiei reports to Eidel that the troops are restless with their mission, which
she responds to in her mild voice by calling them all stupid.  Why seek the
truth of their souls, as though she could not give it to them?  Then again,
their rugged individualism is precisely why they're so well suited to this
test -- and why, according to schedule, they've gotten more powerful with time.
Time for the climax, since the pseudo-ZEUTH's data is now fully collected and
Jiei thinks he can measure how strong Asakim is.  Eidel commends him, and
tells him to return to prepare for the next operation.  Best to act fast while
she's still got Sirocco and Dewey's help.  Jiei whines that he wants to stay
and see the 013 face Asakim, which makes Eidel rather peevish until he reminds
her that he loves her and pleads with her to grant his request.  She relents,
and he gets busy observing.

Asakim decides he's willing to play along and face the 013 today.  Tsiine
lightly says that he's a pretty capricious guy, but he smiles and says he's
not as capricious by half as her master, who's watching from the sidelines with
some tools ready at hand.  When the 013 arrive and deploy, they quickly realize
that the "crows" that plagued them on previous missions (before being posted
to the 013) are in fact the BG's servants -- a rather unpleasant surprise.
Everyone wants this to be the 013's last mission, and a major stepping stone
toward reaching their own goals, and to make that happen they'll have to face
what's likely to be a major barrage from the BG...

 Tsiine means to see whether the team are worthy of being "his" playmates or
 not.  Asakim meanwhile asks if the team are worthy to touch the darkness
 that surrounds him.  ...Not that the knowledge will do anyone any good.

 Tsiine doesn't much like being pelted by the 013, but Asakim tells her to
 retreat before she or her mech get permanently damaged -- there's no reason
 for her to stick around with this farce of a fight.  She agrees to pull out,
 telling Asakim to be careful.  As she does, Asakim muses that if this fight
 is a farce, his whole existence is an even greater farce.  All the same, he
 intends to sever all the ties that bind him down.

 Asakim is relatively quick to withdraw as the damage piles up, but the
 team's mission certainly isn't over yet.  A new menace, even huger than the
 Psycho Gundam, comes on the scene.  Raven thinks he recognizes "her", and
 Neo orders this unknown mech to state its name and affiliation lest he be
 forced to attack it for obstructing his mission.  The pilot agrees, in a
 synthesized voice that is scrambled all across the vocal range.  The mystery
 figure says that it has no name, no affiliation, and nothing that binds it.
 The figure announces that it came to pick a fight with the team, and as a
 reward for making it this far, it will present them overwhelming fear and
 despair.  Just what _I_ always wanted for Christmas.

 As Neo and the team prepare to open fire, Raven protests to Shuran that
 that's the Lemures.  Shuran responds that they've been sent here to guide
 the 013 according to Eidel's wishes... which seem to include throwing down
 with her own mech.  Neo reminds everyone once again that they've all got
 larger objectives to fulfill: no dying here!

 One thing the masked figure never expected is for the Lemures to actually
 be defeated.  Plans will have to be redrawn from scratch at this rate!  At
 least some good data was to be had in the process, and the masked figure
 thanks 013 for their "good" work.  They start laughing, and as the Lemures
 crashes to the ground it's not immediately apparent to the 013 if its pilot
 is alive or dead.

The other pilots wonder why the Lemures wanted to fight them, but Neo can tell
from its clumsy movements that it must have been a prototype... and probably
from their own army to boot.  Even more puzzling is the next message that
arrives: the BG is still moving, and being pursued by another squadron.
..Which means the 013 are done, and all members sworn to AAA secrecy (even
the civilians).  In short, there will be no explanation given for this
peculiar series of events, and Shuran warns -- or rather threatens -- the
civilians that they'd best remember that after they return to their normal
lives.  All Jerrid cares about is that this mess is over.

Neo frowns under his mask, pondering how even at the end his squadron seemingly
offered no value.  The pilots reboard the Izumo for one final trip to Japan...
all except Koren, who lept out of his machine and ran off mumbling something
about the Black History.  Neo doubts he's much of a risk for information
leakage in his current state.  If Neo can take comfort in anything, it's the
kind words from the civilians about how pleasant it was to be under his
command.  The pilots say their farewells, wishing each other good luck in the
pursuit of their various objectives.  Most of them also don't expect to see
each other again.  Timp has at least learned just how rotten the Federation
army is, more determined than ever not to be their dog if he can help it.

The military types will be returning either to the Chimera or to the Phantom
Pain, which will resume its normal ZEUTH hunting.  This delights the Extendeds,
but Jerrid is more sober since he won't get to join them immediately.
Hopefully the military will accept his transfer request once he and Mauer are
done testing out their new mecha.  Mauer tells him to keep going forward,
counting on her to be by his side.  Kaklicorn will stick with him too, as will
Rosamia and Four.  Four asks Stella why she was nice to her back then, and the
answer is simple: Neo once told Stella to look after any comrade who seems in
pain.  Four wishes she could be "friends" with Stella at all times, not just
painful ones... and to Four's amazement Stella doesn't actually know what the
word "friend" means.  The Frost brothers have no friends of course, no one but
themselves to rely on.

In parting, Neo tells everyone that even if the squadron's existence is
stricken from the records, he believes the short time together will linger long
in all the pilots' hearts.  He dismisses them with the words "good work", but
Raven isn't satisfied.  He asks Shuran if he'd heard anything about this
operation, and Shuran can only speculate that the 013 were chosen to test
Jiei's ultimate Chimera weapon.  Raven finds it odd that even they wouldn't
have been told about that part in advance, but Shuran claims it would be
normal for Jiei not to tell anyone the details of his Byzantine schemings.
He also tells Raven not to try to guess at the voice of the Lemures' pilot,
which Raven doesn't buy on the theory that he'll only lay his life on the line
for Eidel's orders -- and no one else's.  Shuran smirks and says that Jiei
was probably trying to maximize that facet of Raven's strength by not telling
him the details.  But... but... Shuran was put in danger too!  *poutpoutslash*

In any event, Shuran tells Raven they've been ordered to make contact with the
ZEUTH as soon as they reach Japan.  It's finally time for the Chimera to kick
into gear for Eidel's main plan.  Raven's job will be to infiltrate the ZEUTH
and guide them from within, almost certainly bringing them into conflict with
members of the 013.  Raven doesn't care if they mark him as a traitor: he'll
do everything for Eidel including get himself killed.  Shuran tells him not
to worry: most of the 013ers work for either Dewey or Sirocco, and both of
them are now in Eidel's pocket.  A revolution is drawing near, Eidel's
revolution, and Raven can't wait for it to be over so he can shred the ZEUTH
from within...

----

The 013, having reached the end of its enigmatic mission, was dispersed
without ever knowing who brought it together.  Nor did they find out the
identity of the BG or its masked pilot.  With doubts in their hearts, the 013's
pilots returned to their personal battlefields.

Their reunions would come in many forms.  By turns friends, by turns enemies...
They all risked their lives in battle, knowing not what Fate held in store for
them.  It was the first year of the Multi-Dimensional world... and that
world's chaos continued unabated.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EPISODE 2. Backstory Memory

ZEUTH has occupied the UN Station which the Chimera had converted into a
fortress, and broadcast the truth to the whole world.  Having saved Eureka,
who had become the Executive Cluster, ZEUTH now have ten hours until the
Spacetime repair occurs.  As they renew their resolve for the final battle,
ZEUTH's members reflect on their past battles.

---

It is the first year of the Multi-Dimensional World.  The massive wars that
have raged throughout it since its founding have begun to recede, due to the
death in battle of the leaders of various warring factions, or else the resolve
of those factions to work together.  It is the dawn after the members of the
independent ZEUTH squadron have broadcast the truth to the public.  With the
prospect of Spacetime repair looming before them, ZEUTH's members turn their
thoughts to their past struggles.  Meetings, collisions, partings... What have
the fires of war conferred, what have they bequeathed to the people of the
world...?

---

Stage 2.1: Harbor Ambitions, O Young Man!

Aboard the Archangel, several of the old ladies on the support staff are
forcing Kira and Aslan and the others to chow down on their home cooking --
can't very well fight a war on an empty stomach, right?  It's a time for
reflection, reminiscence on all the fighting that's led up to this point.
Several current members of ZEUTH were embroiled in lengthy fights with other
members during the period where the truth was shrouded, a period that the
ZEUTH broadcast has hopefully brought to a close.  Amuro muses that it's up
to each member of the public how they accept (or not) the truth, and what
wishes they convey to the team for use in the Spacetime repair.  Kappei asks
what would happen if the peoples of the world wish for the world to be
destroyed instead of repaired, and Kei says that he'll have to cross that
bridge if he comes to it.  After all, it's not for ZEUTH to decide the fate of
the world, but rather for all the world's people.  Now that ZEUTH has set the
stage, each member effectively gets one vote, equal to the rest of the
world's residents.

Rather than dwelling on the gloomy past stuff, the team start reminiscing about
the good stuff; namely, who's been the most righteous from the start.  Renton's
a pretty decent candidate, though his initial clueless kid act took quite a bit
of refining along the way.  The Gravion pilots harken back to one of Renton's
early moments of glory, the battle where he finally proposed to Eureka.  That
was the same battle in Siberia when Gainer proposed to Sara, and she's waaaaay
too embarrassed to want that brought up again just now.  Adette recommends
recounting a different battle from a little later, Renton's "first mission".
This popular tale dates to shortly before the second Breaking, during ZEUTH's
journey as part of Yapan's Ceiling's Exodus across Siberia...

Back in time, aboard the Gekkostate, the rest of the crew are apologizing to
Renton for underestimating him -- he's demonstrated beyond any reasonable
doubt that he's capable of piloting the Nirvash.  Stoner has a job that only
Renton can handle, and it involves what looks like a typical takeout box.  No
sooner does Renton try to handle it, however, than the team gets all tense and
intimate that it's something incredibly dangerous.  Hap won't say _what_ the
item, capable of wiping out an entire city, is, but they've been contracted
by someone in Yapan's Ceiling to take it to a certain other person.

All this mystery is enough to get Renton super motivated to carry the mission
out, especially since the others claim that his face would be less known to the
Bad Guys(tm) than any of the other Gekkostate members.  He'll have to wear a
bit of "urban camouflage" though, and won't get told the details of the mission
until he reaches the destination.  Renton charges off, never bothering to
question the motives of his obviously nefarious comrades.  Who, for their part,
are determined to make this into one hell of a "big secret mission".  The plan
is to have Doggy go and secretly film the whole thing so the team can laugh
about it, and the crew tell Doggy not to louse things up by letting Renton see
him like what happened the last time.  Gidget will go and fetch all the other
ZEUTH members with nothing better to do to watch as well, planning to avoid
Kengou or anyone else who might object to hazing rookies.

Fortunately for Renton, he's got friends to help him out on this mission of
his.  Garode was looking for something to do to pass the time now that the
Exodus is well underway, and doesn't mind the chance to show Tifa the snowy
fields of Siberia at somewhat closer range than normal.  Turns out to be a good
thing she's along, since her precognition warns the squad that something bad
is about to happen...

Renton's "urban camouflage" looks totally stupid.  Struggling not to laugh,
the adults tell Renton and co. to sneak into Cadez on foot, keeping contact
with other people to a minimum and to await further orders once inside.  Renton
can't go alone however: whoever is receiving the delivery wants some insurance
that the delivery is what he/she ordered -- as such, they want a hostage.
Renton has to pick from among the three girls with him, and the Gekkostate
folks hang up on him before giving him a thorough accounting of why.  It's
obvious Renton is taking his mission in deadly earnest, and although the
Gekkostaters are having fun watching, Gain cautions them mildly that he
wouldn't be at all surprised if Renton takes it badly when he finds out what's
been going on.  Not that the Gekkostaters care much -- they're too busy trying
to figure out which of the girls Renton will pick.

Renton makes his way into the city and radios back to Hap, but Hap won't let
him explain who he picked as his partner.  Struggling to keep from laughing,
Hap tells Renton he trusts his judgement, and tells him to make contact with
a man wearing a golden suit.  It would seem that the "lady" Renton chose is
no lady at all...  The peanut gallery actually thinks Gainer doesn't look
half-bad in drag, and Adette even offers to teach the guy proper makeup
technique when he returns.  Hap hadn't expected Renton to come up with this
kind of solution to the challenge he posed, and suspects that Renton should
do just fine with the next stage.

The man with the golden suit happens to be none other than Beck, who's busy
kicking an arcade game in frustration.  Renton and Gainer make a token
attempt to talk to the guy, and get rapidly scared off by Beck's punk-esque
exterior and supposition that Gainer is hitting on him.  Renton gets back on
the horn with Hap, who says that their employer seems to be testing him --
further proof of how important the item Renton's carrying must be.  The
employer has decided to use an intermediary, and Hap passes Renton some truly
ridiculous words to say to the person.

Gainer now realizes that the whole thing is a hoax, but Renton still believes
and is determined to charge ahead.  By this point Moon Doggy can't stand
it anymore and calls Renton a moron to his face, blowing his cover in the
process.  Renton, more oblivious than ever, is so glad to see Doggy actually
looking out for him as an older brother would, confessing that he's been
very afraid that innocent people would get hurt when he finally delivers the
item to its intended recipient.  He now knows that that won't cut it though:
he's got to be strong so he can protect Eureka.  He thanks Doggy for giving
him confidence, and then abruptly finds the person he's supposed to give the
goods to: a breaker with an unbelievably prominent Adam's apple.  What Renton
has been told to say only infuriates the Breaker more, and when his buddy
shows up they decide to bust out their Walker Machines and send Renton,
obviously a bounty hunter despite his tender years, straight to hell.  What
Renton can't fathom is how things came to this...

Renton and Gainer dash back to their mecha outside, heedless of the mess
Gainer's makeup has ended up in.  The Breakers seem like unwanted guests in
Cadez, and Sara for one isn't going to let them cause any mayhem... much less
any harm to her own people.  Eureka asks Renton to let her pilot, but he
doesn't want to yield: this was _his_ mission that's turned into such a
fiasco, and he wants, _needs_ to put things right with his own hands.  She
agrees, adding with a smile that he looks pretty weird in his "camouflage"
getup.  The good guys are outnumbered, but Gainer's put in a call to
the Gekkostate and reinforcements should arrive soon...

 The cavalry duly arrive on turn two.  Holland can't believe Renton managed
 to stir up a group of outlaws on his very first mission, and Hap and the
 other co-conspirators mean to clean up this mess before Renton finds out
 that he's been hazed.

That happens anyway though when Gainer valiantly tells the team that they've
_got_ to let Renton finish the mission they gave him.  After all, just think of
all the travails he's been through already!  Kengou figures out what must have
happened, and vows to give his unruly charges the lecture of their lives for
hazing a newcomer.  It finally begins to dawn on Renton that he's been had.

As the reminiscence continues, it comes out that Gainer knew all along that
something was wrong with the mission.  If nothing else, Gainer points out,
the only way Hap would have known that the "girl" with Renton had glasses is
if he was somehow watching from afar.  He used Kengou's reaction to Renton's
betrayed innocence to exact his own little measure of revenge on the
perpetrators, hardly that far in the wrong given how the supposed adults made
the first shameless move.

Doggy admits to being rather jealous back then at how wholeheartedly Renton
threw himself into the mission -- that was the moment Renton officially became
his "rival".  And, happily for Doggy, Renton's arrival as a full-fledged team
member meant that Doggy was no longer getting dumped on as the youngest.
Both of them are determined to bust their ass to rescue Eureka as "brothers"
now.  Roger says that Renton is every inch Axel Thurston's grandson, a man
who's shown him considerable kindness on occasion.  In fact, why not talk
about that next?


Stage 2.2: Keep On Moving

The tale unfolds a short while after Roger parted ways with the team in Japan.
While the majority of ZEUTH was operating in two main teams, Roger continued
his footloose travels with Norman and Dorothy, ending up the southerly reaches
of Galia.  The little band ended up in Renton's hometown, Belforest -- the
first place anyone on the team encountered Sevenswell.  Renton wonders aloud
what Roger wanted in such a UN-happening town, and Roger chides him lightly
that that's the last thing _Renton_ ought to say.  As for what Roger was doing
there, Banjou has an insight or two to share.

Dominic is in town at this point, staring at Belforest's massive central tower
while lost in thought.  This town, so remote and so quiet, is in fact the spot
where the rejuvenation of the world began.  This is where the Type ZERO was
baptized by combat, and where the first recorded Sevenswell occurred.  So many
coincidences that aren't coincidences at all, considering the fact that Renton
is Adrock Thurston's son.  More than almost anything in the world, Dominic
wants to understand just what Renton has been entrusted with doing.  To do
that, he first has to meet Axel Thurston, a man not stingy with his
hospitality.

He describes himself to Axel as an itinerant mapmaker, attached to the
Federation army and beset by bosses who don't care that the land keeps
rearranging itself.  Axel seems convinced that his erstwhile grandson can't
have grown up much in the few months since he left home, the very picture of
the old-school geezer Dominic expected.  Direct questions about Renton and
Adrock likely won't work, but before he can try an indirect approach, two
customers arrive for the aging mechanic.  Norman says that his employer has a
job for him, though Dorothy is more direct: he's coming with them now.  Axel is
willing to go meet their employer, but first tells Dorothy that his hat is off
to the engineering skills of whoever her "father" is.  This elicits as close to
a smile as Dorothy ever manages, and she's sure he would have loved to hear it.
He doesn't usually do traveling repairs, but for Dorothy he'll make a bit of an
exception.  He tells Dominic to make himself at home, though Dominic isn't
entirely content to sit "idle" after Norman lets it slip that he's part of the
Big O contingent.

Still, ransacking Axel's house while he's out seems like a good idea.  Too bad
no interesting evidence turns up, and Dominic mutters to himself that Axel
seems to be trying to forget about his illustrious son and grandson.  Don't
be too sure, comes a lady's voice: it's Angel, with Banjou tagging along for
good measure.  Dominic is aghast at seeing the famous Haran "The Storm" Banjou,
a man whose movements even Staff HQ hasn't been able to track, infiltrating
the very house he's trying to investigate -- of course, Banjou and Angel could
say the same for Dominic himself.  There are standing orders for anyone in the
Federation to shoot Banjou on sight as a anti-Federation dissident, but Banjou
notes that he's not opposed to the _whole_ Federation.  Just the rotten parts
of it.

He's even willing to tell Dominic his "true objective": smiting evil ambitions
on behalf of the world and its people!  Dominic can't believe Banjou can say
that with a straight face, and is further astonished that Banjou knows lots
about the special forces unit he belongs to, the Ageha.  Is it really true that
they're investigating thee "Coralian" things said to be overrunning the world?
Dominic blusters that he doesn't know what Banjou's talking about, but Banjou</pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
merely smiles and asks rhetorically if keeping info on the Coralians secret is
really in the best interests of mankind.  His intuition tells him that this is
too big a matter for a small and possibly biased group of people to be charting
mankind's course on their own.

Dominic furiously tells Banjou to shut up, that even without the likes of him
sticking his nose in, there's someone looking after the situation.  Oh, that
Dewey Novack guy?  YES, THAT DEWEY NOVACK GUY!  Thought so.  At this point,
another intruder shows up in Axel's house, taking offense at Dominic's choice
for savior-of-mankind-of-the-week.  Schwarz is less than thrilled that Dominic
knows the Truth and still turns to a man who's only trying to monopolize the
Coralians for his own perverse ends.

Schwarz is no happier with Banjou, who he accuses of conceit and of averting
his eyes from the Truth.  That Truth is what Schwarz is on a mission to
proselytize -- the true terror of the night!  Schwarz has a Megadeus on tap,
the Big Duo, and he means to show these fools a taste of what real power, um,
tastes like.  At the sight of the behemoth, Dominic can do nothing more useful
than cower in terror, but Angel tells him to get his sorry ass moving unless he
wants to make Schwarz destroy Axel's house -- and all the memories it contains.
Besides, it's safer outside now that the sun is rising.

Banjou reminds everyone why he's here (smiting evil ambitions, all that stuff),
and informs Schwarz that he and his delusional schemes of world destruction
have no place under the sun.  Schwarz counters that the darkness, whence
mankind first came and which it has tried to forget ever since, is where the
Truth really lies.  Indeed, the darkness _itself_ is the Truth!  Banjou isn't
here to debate the mummified guy, but rather to kick his ass and do a bit of
the editing that the former newspaper reporter so obviously needs.

 On round 2, Schwarz gets some help: Megadeus Archetypes, relics from the
 Black History that archeology has been unearthing of late.  They seem to
 have activated in response to the Big Duo, which Schwarz takes as further
 proof that the darkness is the greater power.  Does Banjou care?  Guess.
 Roger doesn't care either, but he does want Schwarz to shut his piehole.
 He says hi to Banjou, claiming to only be in town for a few repairs on his
 mech.

 Ahhhh, but what if that was The Big's larger design for him?  Schwarz sees in
 this further proof of the foolishness of those who keep turning away from
 the Truth.  People like Dominic, who think they can actually control the
 raging forces that devastated this town not long ago.  Roger can't say for
 certain if this meeting is Big O's providence or not, but if so, he'll put it
 to good use by shutting Schwarz's big mouth once and for all.  This will be a
 tall order with the Big O damaged, but Roger has at least one ace up his
 sleeve: Axel, who thinks he can fix the thing on the fly.  The last thing
 Axel wants is for the house that Renton will one day come home to to get
 flattened.  Banjou is more than happy to buy time until the Big O can catch
 up.

 Despite Roger trashing everything that comes near, Schwarz taunts him by
 saying that the Big O seemingly no longer loves him.  Like hell it doesn't,
 shouts Axel.  Mecha may not be magical implements, but they do have enough of
 a soul that they'd never betray anyone who sincerely reaches out to them.
 Roger couldn't agree more, which is presumably why he's fit to be a The Big's
 Dominus.  Angel's spectating on the battle is interrupted by a call from
 Vera Ronstadt, who had been somewhat anxiously awaiting a report from her.
 Vera tells her that he's sent a few of the Union's agents into battle, in
 part to see just how strong The Big is.  Angel doesn't like that, but Vera
 tells "Agent 340" that she has no right to question The Union's stratagems,
 unless she wants to die that is.

 Schwarz isn't pleased to see the running dogs of the fool who styles himself
 Paradigm City's king.  They concentrate their fire on Roger, who doesn't
 yet have full use of Big O's faculties.  He dodges the first volley, but
 is about to eat the second when the elderly butler brigade show off their
 mad bazooka prowess.  Dorothy, not to be outdone, mans a missile launcher,
 buying just enough time for Axel to finish repairs.  Not just repairs either:
 the Big O is tuned to perfection thanks to Axel's experienced hands, and
 ready to help Roger lay waste to all these interlopers.

 Schwarz continues to spout his cryptic BS throughout the battle, which
 Banjou rapidly tires of.  Any self-respecting newspaper-reporter-turned-
 megalomaniac-mummy ought to know that concise prose is good prose.  The
 closest Schwarz gets is to say that his mission involves instilling fear in
 mankind.  Humans, weak, puny creatures they are, require fear to properly
 evolve -- absent fear, all they can do is mill around in their evolutionary
 dead-end without grasping the Truth of their impending demise.  Let there
 be fear, and let that be as a salvation to all!!!

Oookay, that said it's clearer than ever that Roger wants no part of this
"Truth" Schwarz is peddling.  Vera orders Angel back to Kids Munt so Vera can
start accelerating his plans.  Angel reluctantly complies, and Vera reminds
her that those born into the Union are fated to remain with the Union for their
entire lives.  Axel meanwhile thanks the two young guys (with their big-ass
robots) for saving his home and all the memories it contains.  As they get
older, they'll come to realize just how big a favor they've done him.  And
by that point, their youth will have let them make many memories of their own.
Watching this, Dominic realizes that Axel may be a bigger man than he gave him
credit for, and plans to stay here a while longer to try to learn from the
guy.  Axel says that if Renton ever hears this story, he should remember that
he's always got a home waiting for his return in Belforest.

Best believe Renton will head back to Belforest after all is said and done,
with Eureka by his side.  This little episode was just one example of Roger's
long and winding quest, a journey that's shaped the man he is now.  Kira has
had much the same experience on his own travels.  Most of the pilots on the
team, however, have not: fighting has kept them too busy to do much spectating
on the state of the world around them.  Roger agrees to regale them with
another gaudy tale from his travels, since there's still time to kill.  See,
there was this man he met in the center of the world...


Stage 2.3: At the Middle of This World

The multi-dimensional world is made up of a lot of, um, dimensions, and not
surprisingly a lot of people from all those dimensions have found themselves
living together in close quarters.  The highly mixed-up nature of ZEUTH itself
is a microcosm of the world at large, and Roger notes that any time there are
differences between people, conflicts arise.  Some conflicts can split the
whole world in half, others remain on a more... intimate level.  Roger's
story concerns a certain small town at the height of such a conflict, and the
bloodthirsty pilots are sure that he must have taken sides and blown the crap
out of someone with Big O.  Roger sighs at how no one believes his job title
as Negotiator, describing the unfortunate outbreaks of violence involving him
as bad luck.

Anyway, back to the blowing-the-crap-out-of part.  It all went down between the
time he parted ways with Banjou in Belforest, and the time he rejoined the
Iron Gear.  The town in question hired him to negotiate with a group of
nearby bandits whose unreasonable demands had them all by the balls.  Roger
went to their hideout to explain that the town was _not_ going to pay the large
bribe they demanded.  One of the bandits scoffs at how stupid the townsfolk
are to turn down their offer of "bodyguarding" them, but Roger points out that
their illegal demands for recompense still amount to extortion.

The bandits give Roger a message for the townsfolk: pay up if they don't want
to get hurt.  At that, Roger informs them that the mayor has asked the
Federation army to come and look into the bandits' activities -- an
investigation Roger believes will be called off if the bandits go away
quietly.  A decent negotiating tactic, except for the fact that the Feds'
influence doesn't exactly extend out here.  Yet.  But what if the town was so
desperate to rid themselves of the bandits that they'd sell their independence
to the Feds?

That thought would give any rational bandits pause, but never let it be said
that Breakers are long on brains.  Their leader declares war, planning to
burn the town to the ground and bug out before the Feds even arrive.  Roger
doesn't attempt to fight back, merely conveying the message back to town and
telling the bandits he hopes they change their mind.

The mayor, who did not in fact intend to sell his town to the Feds, is aghast
that the ruse only seems to have made things worse.  Never fear though: Roger
has a plan -- since the bandits are mortally afraid of the Feds, it should
suffice to make it _look_ like the Feds are coming.  That, and a small amount
of dough (say, 1% of the bandits' original request) should suffice to make
them flee for good.  Roger promises to help see this charade through, and the
mayor is set to go for it until the head of the constabulary weighs in.  He
doesn't want to hand over one red cent without a fight, and it's a fight he's
willing to wage against the bandits.

Turns out he's hired some ex-soldiers to counter the bandit threat, and despite
misgivings the mayor decides to throw in his lot behind the constable.  Though
this may result in avoidable bloodshed, the mayor is also thinking about the
second, or third time bandits try something like this...  There's only so much
running away the town can do, and especially in a world as messed-up as this,
one has to have a strong heart to make it in the long run.

Though that terminated the need for Roger's services, Roger isn't upset.
Quite the opposite in fact: of all the people he's met since leaving Paradigm
City, these people have the most praiseworthy spirit.  Before he leaves, Roger
decides to check out the bodyguards that instilled so much confidence.  The
group, a motley crew of military deserters called the Noir 7, does not inspire
much confidence at first.  They're mostly a group of normal guys thrown
together by circumstance.

Trois, for instance, left the Zaft because he fell in love with a Natural...
only to have her marry someone else.  Shijou left Orb over political
differences with the ruling Seilan family, though that in part means trying
to see Cagalli personally restored to power.  Cinq was fired from Siberian
Rail due to a personality conflict with the Transportation Secretary (Artham),
and Zwei deserted the Diana Counter to get a firsthand look at the fabled
Earth's environs.  Hex got drummed out of the Ageha for punching a commander
he didn't like, which is similar to O-ne's story.  He exited the Titans due
to gradual disillusionment with his commanders: if there's anything the world
has taught him, it's to trust only what he sees with his own eyes.  And to
value human life above all.  Rather than move around at the pleasure of
others, he's decided that wherever he is is the center of his world.

This kind of thinking is why O-ne is the leader, and a leader that Roger can
respect.  The Noir 7 told the townspeople at the outset that they're roughly
evenly matched with the bandits and that victory can't be assured, but the
town decided to bet on their success.  These mercs didn't take this job
because it made good business sense, but because they can see that the
townsfolk are fighting for their very way of life: _they_ are the center of
their own world, and surely worth fighting to defend.

Just then the final member of the 7 runs up with news that the bandits are
already here.  His name is Sept, and he fled the stupidity of Chiram's
military leadership.  He's not sure he'll ever see Roger again, but is glad he
met him once.  The 7 tell Roger to make tracks while there's still some hope
of a safe retreat, and head onto the battlefield.  The townsfolk have done
what they can to help with a few pitfalls and homemade explosives for the
first wave of Breakers.  It will fall to the Noir 7 to do most of the fighting
though...

 Things take a turn for the worse when O-ne spots a little girl left behind
 in the evacuation.  He rushes over to take her to safety, and gets blasted
 by the bandit flagship for his pains.  The bandit announces that he's going
 to enjoy crushing both the bodyguard and the girl he's trying to hard to
 defend underfoot.  Unless of course O-ne wants to run away and save his own
 skin, like so many other people in this world.  Not O-ne: the reason he
 left the military was that he was sick of taking other people's lives for
 reasons other than his own.  Sure he's still fighting, but he's fighting for
 his own reasons -- and all those reasons would be gone if he abandoned the
 girl now.

 The ideological argument goes on so long that Dorothy has a chance to spirit
 the girl to safety.  In the interim, Roger also calls Big O not as a
 "negotiator" but rather as a mere busybody.  The bandit tells him not to
 kid around, and he's about to find out just how deadly serious Roger can
 get.

The bandits get their ass handed to them quickly, and after the battle O-ne
tells Roger the one thing he swore when he left the military: living like a
proper human means fighting under his own volition.  He pulls the Noir 7 out
quickly, since gun-toting bodyguards and peace don't readily mix.  But
wherever they go, there they will be at the center of the world.

The ZEUTH pilots all love O-ne's attitude, which was in fact the spark Roger
needed to properly line up his own search for the Truth.  It's also why Roger
decided to permanently join the ZEUTH.  While it's true that not everyone in
this world is a good person, it's the ZEUTH's job to protect them all through
the Dimensional Repair.  Heck, there'll be plenty of time to kick evildoer
ass after the current crisis is averted.  The Repair is now only six hours
away, and it's time to go save the world and Eureka along with it...

---

The origins of the Breaking of the World included more than just pain and
sorrow.  Numerous encounters also went into its birth, and with them much
joy and hope stemming from being alive.

Protecting these things is the essence of Dimensional Repair, ZEUTH's mission
and hope.

The time limit drew near, and the team gathered their hopes for the future of
the world in preparation for the final battle.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EPISODE 3. Glory Star Report

Star 3 records all combat activity in the interest of perfecting the Valgora,
as the mission entrusted her by the late Lieutenant Denzel Hammer.  This
notice is excerpted from her reports, and concerns battles between ZEUTH's
contact with Brigadier Eidel Bernal at the New Earth Federation's Tanpagunda
base, and its arrival at Zaft's Gibraltar base.

---

Multidimensional year 9/16/0001.

ZEUTH has departed Tanpagunda Base for Gibraltar Base.  As the chaos in the
world continues to accelerate, ZEUTH finds itself pondering what role it can
play from time to time.  It's unclear what all abilities lie hidden within
the modified Gunnery Carver, but I have steeled myself for the task of bringing
those concealed abilities forth.  But am I really worthy of the Glory Star
name...?  These doubts give me pause to this day.

                 - Glory 3rd


Stage 3.1: Burning Battle: The Warriors' Day Off

The team has received a most unusual offer: an inn owned by Sandman awaits
along the way to Gibraltar.  Sandman's platoon of maids have already headed
to the spot to make ready, so there's very little room (or reason) for the
team to refuse.  Besides, there's still some time left before the scheduled
conference with Durandal...  With no objections from the other captains, the
King Beal's crew tell Raven they'll be happy to accept the offer.  Since
Raven will be busy with matters in Japan, Tessela and the others will be
playing host...  Poor Raven really had her her heart set on the trip too...

When the team arrive, several of the pilots have to doublecheck that they
_are_ still in Western Galia, a region generally akin to the Sahara Desert.
Their disbelief is understandable, given the entire touristy hot springs town
Sandman seems to have constructed.  The rivers and even the _mountains_ ringing
the site are all artificial and look like something straight out of a Japanese
travelogue.  Sandman himself is on hand to welcome everyone to his
"Gravi-Onsen", which is either a monumental work of art or a monumental waste
of money.  The team rapidly find themselves too pampered to care which.

Lots of food, lots of hot water, lots of karaoke... and an admonition from
Sandman that all the warriors gathered here need to keep up their fighting
spirit.  Time for one hell of a mixed-doubles ping-pong tournament, with the
winners playing Sandman's own team for fabulous prizes.  Several challenges
lay ahead, including keeping one's eyes on the bouncing ball and not other
bouncing things... like Mizuki's formidable assets.

Setsuko and Camille made a decent showing, though they had the misfortune to
face the precognitive might of Amuro across the table.  Setsuko is just old
enough to have drank a little beer afterwards, and is now lightly tipsy -- she
thinks to her departed chief that the taste and the effect are pretty pleasant.
Tetsuya meanwhile is surprisingly magnanimous to his partner Cecil, commending
their opponent for their defeat while encouraging her to ramp up her physical
training for the future.  Kouji had similar luck with his partner Ril, working
up a pleasant sweat covering for her largely stationary presence.  This is
more than the maids paired up with Boss and cronies can say...

Even the often-distant Quatro agreed to join in, though his ping-ponging
skillz are far more squeebish than his piloting.  Rolan probably wishes he
could have taken Quatro's place as Kiel's partner, given how assertive Minako
is.  Meilin, with Touga as her partner, couldn't defeat her more athletic
sister and Eiji -- and oddly Touga doesn't seem bothered at all.  Eina's
head is about to explode from all the sports theory Julie tried and failed to
teach her, but she's a damn sight better than Kiraken's partner Hanae.  The
two of them certainly have the most power in the tournament... too bad ping
pong requires actually getting the ball onto the table part of the time.  Sure,
they beat Kazami and Rie, but Kazami's over the hill and in bad need of more
onsen sessions.

Unfortunately, a problem arises before the tournament can finish: Zeravaia have
just popped out nearby, probably lurking in the magma that heats the place.
Of course, the whole team is hardly ready to sortie at a moment's notice, so
Sandman has the people who made it to the quarter-finals launch.  After all,
they made it past the first round: no problem with another, right?  Umm, yeah.
Though the mixed-doubles format is rather awkward, the participants stand to
learn something valuable about improved teamwork... almost as though Sandman
planned it that way.  If so, the plan includes crushing the new Zeravaia core
so that this little Garden of Eden can be saved.

The Zeravaia don't stand a chance, nor for that matter do any of the other
ping pong teams.  Eiji and Lunamaria obliterate the competition and earn
themselves the chance to face Sandman... and perhaps for once to even beat
the enigmatic zillionaire.  Sandman's choice of partner, like the rest of his
tournament structure, involves more than meets the eye.  It seems doubtful
the diminutive granny can even hold a ping pong racket straight, but Sandman
promises to play hard enough for both of them.  The strategy: demonstrate to
Eiji just how far short of being a _true_ badass he still is.  To add to the
humiliation to come, Sandman even disdains a normal racket and uses one of
his slippers.  The maids are of course thrilled.

Everyone else who survived the carnage, however, will take memories of the
dreadful day to their grave.  Sandman's overawing, unrelenting barrage of
unfollowable smashes and stop-motion drop-shots are too much cowbell for even
Christopher Walken, and Setsuko can't even bear to enumerate all the gory
details.

Interestingly, Sandman returns to Japan from his terrordome refreshed, and
resolved to tell ZEUTH of his sinful past.  He also has a little souvenir for
Raven, as a reward for minding the store while everyone else frolicked in the
onsen: a V.I.P. pass to _any_ onsen in the world.  It seems that no one could
beat him in his tourney, so the grand prize had to go to _someone_ or other.
And if all goes well, perhaps Raven will finally take off her mask and share
her onsen trip with Sandman himself...


Stage 3.2: Teral's Resolve

Teral is thinking back to his previous return to his home planet, where his
dear friend Lila was waiting for him.  She's as much support as he's got, but
he won't get to see her long: his next mission will take him far from Eldar in
short order.  She is the only one he can confide in about what that mission
entails: the destruction of Eldar's archenemies, the Earthlings', greatest
trump card: Trinity Energy.  This energy can neutralize any barrier, even
capable of destroying entire planets, and Eldar's attempts to develop it on
their own have proved fruitless.  But what they _have_ developed is a time
machine.  Oooh.

Before his ship can reach 88 MPH though, Teral is attacked by what seems to
be the husk of an enemy ship up ahead.  It was lying in wait for someone to try
to provide humanitarian aid, and its barrage breaches Teral's ship's hull
easily.  Teral flings himself in front of Lila to shield her from shrapnel,
and in short order his lifeblood begins pooling on the corridor floor.  His
last words are to tell Lila he loves her...

What happened next is passing bizarre, and act of love beyond the comprehension
of... basically everyone.  Lila opted to have her mind and memories transferred
to Teral's body, letting the two of them be as together as one could be
forever.  Her only thought is to save Eldar in Teral's stead, and for that she
was even willing to travel back in time.

While Teral/Lila ponders these things, Butcher is busy deciding the fate of one
of his underlings, defeated in battle by those pesky Earthlings.  Butcher
claims to be a benevolent dictator, and kindly offers his underling a choice of
fates.  One: beheading.  Two: firing squad.  Three: tickling (presumably unto
death).  As the poor soldier gapes at the options, Butcher announces that time
is up and, predictably, drops the poor S.O.B. down a pit to his doom.  Gosh,
isn't a good thing he built pitfalls into his command center?  Not yet
satisfied, Butcher orders the next failed soldiers in.  The commander has
failed multiple times against Earth, and Butcher first orders his subordinates
put to death, then the whole 8-man squadron, THEN two other unlucky victims to
make an even ten.

Before the bloodletting can begin however, Teral angrily intervenes.  Though
Butcher's lieutenants suspected he kills his subordinates for fun, this is
probably the first time anyone's stood up to him about it.  Teral asks whether
the Gaizock plan to participate in the joint operation he proposed, and is none
too pleased when Butcher bows out on grounds that he still has more games to
play.  As Teral's wrath grows, Butcher announces that he's going to bed, and
intimates that the Eldar had better be prepared to actually fight the Gaizock
if they don't like it.

Emperor Vega certainly doesn't think Butcher is serious about invading the
Earth, but neither he nor Gattler are willing to risk the Gaizock's
indiscriminate wrath by upsetting their fragile alliance.  In fact, each of
the commanders besides Eldar are more interested in preserving their own
individual advantage than helping the group as a whole prosper.  Vega tries
to cut short the argument, whereat Teral angrily whirls and stalks out, hissing
that it was his own fault for asking others for help in the first place.  His
homeland _must_ see the Earth laid low, and he's got a plan to at least take
God Sigma out, with or without Gattler or anyone else's aid.

Times seem too interesting for Teral, but for Kiraken they're too boring:
nothing to match the joys of the ping pong tourney, and nothing interesting
on UN TV.  Then again, "interesting" is a matter of opinion, and Julie at least
is addicted to the news.  As the pilots gather around, they see a headline
about a giant logging robot whose plans are attracting bids from around the
world.  Nothing much interesting about a lumberjack robot... until it turns
out that its inventor is none other than Minako's father, and that the robot
he's selling plans for is God Sigma itself!

Marchino claims that all he sold Sandman was the rights to Trinity Energy and
the completed God Sigma: the plans, so the theory goes, remain his.  While
the buyer of the plans won't be able to mass-produce God Sigmas (thanks to the
bits about Trinity Energy being redacted), they will get information about its
auxiliary systems and combination mechanism.  All deliberations about contract
language and IP rights go out the window when aliens attack suddenly, Teral's
core forces bolstered by troops lent by Gattler.  Teral's objective is a
focused attack on God Sigma, with all other priorities rescinded.

 Julie quickly realizes that the longer this battle drags on, the bigger the
 disadvantage the team faces.  As the God Sigma races towards Teral's
 flagship, Teral seizes the chance to launch his Gerogilas Sniper, which
 stops God Sigma dead in its tracks with a seemingly trivial shot.  Teral
 orders the rest of the troops to fend of God Sigma's friends, while he
 personally finishes it off.

 When the analysis of Teral's attack comes in, Kazami realizes that God Sigma
 has a fatal weakness in circuit 1359, which can be shorted out by an
 attack with just the right timing.  The only way this could have happened is
 Minako's father's plans falling into the Eldar's hands.  She feels personally
 responsible, and volunteers to scale God Sigma's exterior to perform the
 manual bypass around the damaged circuit.  There's no way Minako can do it
 on her own, but Rie tells her she won't _be_ alone for the repair.

 The two girls zoom over in Kouji's TFO, determined to save the men they love
 despite the obvious danger.  Their determination resonates with Teral, but
 before he can do much of anything, they finish repairs and get God Sigma
 back online.  Toshiya promptly saves their pretty behinds in turn by
 shielding them from the oncoming barrage of fire just as Teral once did for
 Lila.

 Teral/Lila hesitates a long moment, then orders the troops to mount an all-
 out assault.  Though their little ruse didn't work, they haven't lost yet!

Emphasis on the word "yet".  All the resolve Teral can muster doesn't postpone
his miserable defeat long.  This leaves Toshiya to worry about which of Minako
and Rie he likes better, and Julie to ponder over Minako's gradual coming to
terms with how rotten a scientist her father is.

Julie doesn't want Kazami to apologize for the design flaw in God Sigma:
Kazami always says that science never happens without a few false starts along
the way.  To the extent that God Sigma survived Marchino's deplorable act of
treachery, it will be stronger for the experience: Kazami is ready for Julie
and the others to help with the Sigma Breast upgrade, a sterling example of
SCIENCE(tm) in action.  And remember, every scientific advance means a better
future for mankind...

..and a suckier future for Eldar-kind.  Teral can only trudge back to the
Skull Moon base with stories of how ZEUTH's firepower vastly exceeded his
expectations.  Gattler was watching the battle remotely, and doesn't buy the
explanation that it was purely a difference in firepower -- surely Teral should
have had a chance to finish God Sigma off, power restoration or no.  He calls
this a "womanly" failing in battle, which Teral tells him he's going to
answer for sooner or later after Teral has repaid his debt to him.  Gattler's
looking forward to it.

What sucks is that Lila's feelings _were_ genuine when she saw Toshiya being
saved.  The problem is that Teral is a military commander, and Lila's only
way of saving him and all their people is to win this war...


Stage 3.3: Unearthed Graveyard

A mysterious bandaged man has turned up in Southern Galia at the Mountain
Cycle digs, with equally mysterious advice for the digging crews.  "If you seek
the truth, seek the history buried in darkness."  That would obviously be the
Black History, many of whose relics are indeed buried in the Mountain Cycles.
Gwen thinks he can revolutionize society, and agrees with this bandaged man's
suggestion to turn to such ancient weapons for aid.  Cid warns that he can't
guarantee excavating anything of use to Gwen on any given timetable, but Gwen
wants him to keep looking anyway.  Gwen has Joseph and Horace brought to them,
telling them that their mentor Cid is doing well despite his tough assignment.
In fact, he has a tough assignment for them too: check out the Mountain Cycle
in the nearby hills.

All Mountain Cycles have their own unique ambiance, but this one seems more
unique than most that Horace (a former surveyor for the Diana Counter) is
familiar with.  He tells the team that the Mountain Cycles, including this
distinctive ruin, seem more than just mere caches of old stuff: they show signs
of being deliberately arranged.  In short, the Mountain Cycles aren't just
locations _for_ relics from before the Cataclysm -- they _are_ relics (or
ruins) in their own right.  This site, for instance, is mysteriously capped
with snow despite its southerly latitude.

Setsuko wouldn't normally be part of a side trip like this, devoting all her
free time to mecha practice.  But Soshie managed to convince her that this
might be a good change of mood, and a possible opportunity to find another
Turn-A-like weapon for ZEUTH's use.  Unfortunately,, someone else has excavated
the site, and recently too by the looks of it.  Maybe they left something
behind though, so the team starts investigating.

In short order, Joseph starts getting the heebie-jeebies.  This may not be an
ordinary repository for secret, ancient terror weapons -- it might be a TABOO
repository for secret, ancient terror weapons: a Lost Mountain.  From
what Cid told him, no one venturing into a Lost Mountain ever returns, and
that includes one of Cid's own best friends.  Such locations are all
conveniently labeled with a mark Joseph points out on a nearby wall, a mark
whose meaning only Rolan seems to know: the universal "nuclear" symbol.

The investigating wears on into the evening, which brings chill breezes to
the arid area.  Gyaban loans Soshie his coat, a sort of half-proposal of
marriage at random not unsuited to these random times.  He tells her not to
rush her answer, especially since he hasn't _formally_ proposed yet, but tells
her he will once the fighting ends.

As it turns out, the fighting has just begun in the Mountain Cycle: ZEUTH
aren't the only ones interested in it!  The only saving grace is that the Turn
A isn't detecting abnormal radiation levels -- the Breakers whose looting
ZEUTH interrupted certainly aren't going to listen to reason.  Gyaban, more
assertive today than usual, tells Rolan to stop his futile attempts to
negotiate and concentrate on helping save everyone's skin.

 Things seem to be going well until Joseph spies the forbidden mark on a
 bundle one of the Breakers is clutching: a nuclear weapon!!  The ignoramuses
 from Galia have no clue what a nuclear weapon is, and certainly no concept
 of just how big a blast is about to occur if the cornered Breaker actually
 pushes the button.  Rolan yells at Soshie and the others to get as far away
 as possible, but there's no time for that now.  The Breaker yells that it's
 time to pay for pissing him off, but Gyaban leaps into action.

 He tackles the Breaker with three goals in mind.  One: buy everyone else
 enough time to flee the scene (especially Soshie).  Two: wrestle the bomb
 away so he too won't be blown away.  And three: bring the bomb home to
 fulfill the mission Gwen's given the team.  Bad idea, shouts Rolan: this
 forbidden weapon can poison anything it touches for hundreds of years!
 Bitching, shouts the Breaker, and presses the detonator without further
 delay.

 However, something odd happens at this point.  As alarm bells go off inside
 the Turn-A, a bunch of strange mecha appear from deep underground and
 surround the Breaker.  There is but a momentary spike in radiation, and it
 appears that these mystery mecha have somehow neutralized the blast.  They
 resemble one of the Overmen the team faced in Siberia, but appear to be
 unmanned... and hostile.  Joseph shouts that they mean the team harm for
 trespassing in their Lost Mountain, and they seem particularly fixated on
 the Turn-A.  ZEUTH reinforcements will arrive in another turn, so the group
 will have to hold out at least that long.  The Breakers, showing at least
 some glimmer of intellect, wisely bug out at this point.

These "ghosts of the Black History" put up quite a fight, clearly unlike
anything the team has faced before.  Gwen covets their forbidden power, much
to "Kiel"'s sorrow.  She tells Gwen that, in her opinion, man must not lay
hands on such things, blacker even than the darkness itself.  Of course,
she's seen firsthand what destruction the Black History contains, so her
opinion ought to carry a bit more weight than it actually does with Gwen.

Gwen's takeaway from all of this isn't that nukes are BAD, but rather that
Overmen are nifty and deeply connected to the Black History somehow.  He orders
Cid to get his ass to Siberia and start digging up more Overmen, beginning
with Ulgsk, the area around the Domepolis Gainer and friends hail from.  Gwen
will send Cid Mihael and some Moon Race engineers for support, and tells Cid
he may have him represent Gwen to Ulgsk's lord, Count Medaiyu.  The good count
is reputed as both an engineer and an antiquities collector, and from what
Gwen has heard was the origin of Gainer's Overman.

Cid sighs deeply, and tells Gwen he has reservations about his lifetime of
wandering the mountains and digging.  Mankind seems determined to dig up its
sometimes terrible past, not only heedless of the dangers but somehow
emboldened by them.  Such reckless ignorance (or is it ignorant recklessness?)
will surely come back to bite man one day.  And despite Gwen's assurances that
he's only trying to improve society, Cid is rightfully worried about further
contributing to Gwen's arsenal...


Stage 3.4

Aslan has been helping Setsuko hone her aerial combat skills, now that the
Valgora's VWFS allows it to fly.  It's not been an easy transition, but with
tutors like Aslan and Heine, she's starting to get the hang of it.  Raven is
more than happy to help out with training too, since he's under instructions
to report in regularly on the Valgora Glory's performance.  Jiei may be
insane, but his intellect is still by far the biggest treasure the Chimera
have.  "No comment" from Raven about the good doctor's personality defects,
which were on full display for the hangar crew while he was modifying the
Valgora.

His list of sexual harassment would fill an entire police ledger, and Setsuko
glumly says that she'd rather not hear it -- whatever may have happened in
the past, at least the mech is coming along nicely.  Raven tells her not to
stress too much, and she brightens quickly and says that that's exactly what
the chief mechanic always tells her.  Aslan marvels at her resilience: neither
forgetting all the terrible things she's been through, nor going on a rampage
of vengeance, just accepting it all with a sense of peace.  Where _do_ her
reserves of emotional fortitude come from?

Aslan suggests that Setsuko enlist Shinn and his Impulse Gundam to help train
for true all-terrain foes.  Unfortunately, at this point Shinn's still
obsessed with Stella.  He sympathizes with the enemy Extended to a remarkable
degree, and although Aslan can personally sympathize, professionally he points
out that this is a _war_ and that in war people get killed.  People like
Setsuko's cherished commander, or Camille's beloved Four.  Setsuko is
determined to do what she can to keep that war from spreading any further.

Just then a gaggle of other pilots show up, planning to take over training
duties from Aslan.  Setsuko is only too happy to accept their help, which
is going to consist of both a big stick and a big carrot at the end.  Both
prospects have her smiling enough to coerce Lunamaria into joining her.

Some time later, Talia's forces are stationed near Gibraltar, with Federation
units closing in fast.  Time for her to put what she's learned to good use
and help the team reach their goal.  The bad guys are mostly Titans, with a
bit of help from the Frost brothers.  Yazan seems grimly amused that the
brothers are here as much to do recon for Sirocco as to help him actually
fight, and fight he will -- on his own, leaving command of his squadron to
an underling.

 During the battle, Yazan's subordinate recognizes Setsuko's machine, and
 contacts her over a private channel.  He "commends" Denzel Hammer on how his
 mech turned out, shocked when Setsuko informs him that she's one of Denzel's
 wingmen.  He's none too pleased to hear that someone killed Denzel before
 he got the chance to himself.  Come to find out this is the guy who was
 supposed to be Glory 3rd instead of Setsuko, in his own mind... Denzel
 flunked him during the candidate testing.

 This guy wanted to avoid combat, wanted to be a test pilot, AND wanted
 prestige.  That's three birds that Denzel's one stone took out of the sky,
 and the fact that Denzel chose a little wench like Setsuko only makes it
 hurt worse.  He demands that Setsuko either surrender the machine at once,
 or watch him scrap it.  It's the least he can do to repay the bunch of
 money-wasting fucktards that once formed the Glory Star.

 Setsuko's teammates fear that she'll succumb to this talk, but to their
 surprise she manages to actually _shout_ at the guy to shut up.  In her
 former commander's place, she repeats Denzel's declaration that the guy is
 unfit.  And every time he tries to argue, she tells him to shut his piehole
 unless he wants to insult Glory Star even further.  Her teammates fought
 with pride and honor, things this little punk couldn't begin to comprehend.

 Well, this is certainly a Setsuko no one's seen before.  Her roots run
 deep indeed, and it's becoming quite clear that angering her for real is a
 bad idea.  The Titan officer digs his grave further by calling her a mere
 mascot and promising to show that he's every bit as gifted as Denzel was
 idiotic.  Of course, if Denzel's idiocy was zero or less, that might imply
 that the Titan is in for the ass-ramming of his life.

 Yazan is mostly playing around, and gets trounced accordingly.  He's actually
 glad about this, and looks forward to fighting the team for real in the
 future.  The Frost brothers are also in a good mood, seeing that Raven's
 infiltration has gone well and set things up for their grand plans to come
 to fruition.  By contrast, the nameless Titan is a downright sad camper, and
 in so much denial that he doesn't even bother to eject while delivering
 his sour-grapes defeat oration.

 Setsuko knows what this guy was missing: the army is no place for personal
 ambition.  Nor does fighting the emotionless, blindly obedient fight bring
 about anything but sadness.  She fights for a third reason: honest pride
 in making the world a better, safer place.

Once the Titans are defeated, there's nothing between ZEUTH and the protection
of the Zaft umbrella around Gibraltar.  Quatro can't wait to find out what
Durandal intends to do in the face of all the chaos in this multidimensional
world.  At least Setsuko has now proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that
she _is_ worthy to carry on the Glory Star name, fully qualified as Denzel
foresaw.  Though she lost her old teammates, Setsuko has gained stalwart new
ones, the ZEUTH!

---

Multidimensional year 9/29/0001.

ZEUTH will arrive at Zaft's Gibraltar base shortly.  My doubts of a few days
past still linger within me.  However, I plan to lead my life in such a way
that I can answer them with my head held high.  Living is both my obligation
in carrying on the pride of the Glory Star, and is what I like to believe is
something that will help me overcome my sadness.  I'm sure my battles will
continue, and that I will once again have to face Asakim Dorwin.  But when I
do, I will have my pride and my mission in my heart.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EPISODE 4: Beater Service Work Log

The work log of the itinerant Beater Service, known as the "Memory Notes", is
maintained by Mail Beater.  Despite its title, the log currently pertains to
the activities of all of ZEUTH.  This is an excerpt from her work log, and
concerns ZEUTH's activities while staying at Treizoa after the Federation
coup d'etat.

---

Multidimensional year 10/22/0001.

All the shock of the Federation coup has left even us tired.  After the
misunderstanding that led us to fight the other side of ZEUTH, we got the
shocking truth about Eureka.  We decided to try to lift our spirits at the
Treizoa Institute, but I can't shake the feeling that something's going to
happen here too.  It's nice to have more material for my Memory Notes, but
what's going to happen to our world...?  Oh well, no use in me worrying about
it!

 -- Acting President, Mail Beater

Stage 4.1: I Wanna Eat, So I'm Gonna Combine

The scientists and technicians in charge of the Nirvash have gone completely
back to the drawing board to upgrade it.  From what Renton's heard, Doctor
Bear is helping out, and work is proceeding at a feverish pace -- even so, the
job will take at least two weeks.  With Orson's Orguss unit finished, the
lab will be devoting its entire attention to the Nirvash... and all the ZEUTH
will be licking their wounds and repairing their own gear.  There's still the
question of where the Archangel and Freedom Gundam have gone, since neither
the Zaft nor the post-coup Federation have resources to spare to track them
down.  Gainer has a lot of questions for them that he hopes to get the chance
to ask, and Daisuke says there's little else to do but trust that their
monumental will (strong enough to take on the whole world) will carry them
through.

In the meantime, Treizoa's cafeteria is quite a hit with ZEUTH's pilots.
So much so in fact that Reika has put on a whole 900 grams!!!!111.... yeah
that's about 2 pounds.  But OH NOES THAT MEANS A LOSS OF INTEGRATED BODY AND
MIND and more sluggish synchronization with the Aquarions and...  Anyway, it's
a diet!  But not for Sylvie, who is more than happy to feed her face with all
the tasty food.  Reika doesn't like being reminded that crash diets aren't good
for the constitution either, and Liina helpfully chimes in that she has a
vision of a dear little princess who filled her belly too often and became
all roly-poly.  Such a sad little princess, abandoned by her beloved brother...

But there's still time to make amends, and a good thing too: the Aquarion
ladies aren't the only ones grappling with food addiction.  As if on cue,
almost the entire female population of ZEUTH have gotten fat from Treizoa's
food.  And like any good military unit, the women are drawing up formal war
plans to battle the bulge.  GO TEAM!

Reika's struggle is a very personal one, struggling to meditate and will her
bodily sensations (in this case hunger) into oblivion.  Sylvie can't shake
visions of comfort food, while Tsugumi can see herself swimming in an entire
ocean of chocolate, and then fresh cream, and then pudding...  The team has
cheese toast, konnyaku (low in calories!), sukiyaki, and any number of other
delights to resist.  Paula is determined to somehow beat Enil's drop-dead good
looks, while Tonya faces the real possibility of falling off the wagon first
despite being the one who recommended the idea.  Jamie wonders if all the women
on S-1 diet too.  Certainly the young ladies of Orguss want to ensure they
look their best for their eighteenth birthday (and all that implies).

Daisuke marvels that the women are all dieting en masse, but Talho reminds
him that not _all_ the women are on this kick.  The (admittedly self-styled)
more mature women are still just fine, looking with varying degrees of
sympathy and contempt at their immature younger sisters.  The _really_ little
girls either don't know what dieting is, or why anyone would want to
deliberately make themselves hungry.  Ana and Misha both recommend to them
a healthy diet while they're still growing, and Talho will make sure there's
enough food left for when the dieters finally come to their senses.

Ironically, Tifa is one of the few women who _wants_ to eat more, yet somehow
lacks the appetite.  Liina advises the Newtype waif not to let the dieters
hear that, and Dorothy asks if she's planning to diet.  No need, says Liina,
adding slyly she seems to get her nourishment in unusual ways.  This wouldn't
have ANYTHING to do with those fangs, nawwww.  Even more bizarre is Eureka,
who has discovered that she _can't_ get fat no matter how much she eats.

The menfolk can only watch from the sidelines.  By this point, an exercise in
looking good in the eyes of [appropriately gendered potential mate] has
morphed into a struggle to not get looked down by other members of the diet
tribe.  Whosoever fails the test will be branded a loser and a whipped dog,
and it looks like Mail is first in line even though the diet's less than
24 hours old.  Ana reminds Mail that she's got to care for her tummy since
her outfit bares it for the world to see, but Mail counters with the saying
that most women lose weight from their breasts first.  Some of the better
endowed pilots have some leeway there, but if Mail herself follows that
trajectory she'll end up in negative cup sizes.

Hayato smirks and suavely says that that wouldn't do.  Pierre is far more
panicked at the thought of a global reduction in ZEUTH mammary reserves.
That's the point when Renton stumbles in with some actual bad news: no one has
been replenishing Treizoa's food reserves, and the cupboard is almost bare.
What the heck?

Meanwhile in Atlandia, Futaba brings a dismal report of human lifestyle back
to the other Fallens.  He's especially disgusted that they use their sacred
mouths to _eat_ things, but Chiha tells him that such is the cursed fate of
the Wingless Ones.  They must rend and devour the lives of birds and beast,
of fish and fowl and verdure until their dying day.  Futaba counters that
the holy mouth is supposed to be for savoring the spirit in the air, for
singing in the voices of the stars.

It sure would be nice to not need food sometimes.  Now is one of those times:
a plague of nanomachines has infiltrated the food stores and rotted them all.
Even plastic-bagged and hermetically-sealed food wasn't spared, and any food
that somehow made it through the hostile territory around the base would simply
spoil upon arrival.  The crisis is in its fifth day, and the weaker members of
the team are nearly incapacitated with hunger.  Tex grimly notes that while man
does not live by bread alone, he sure as hell doesn't live _without_ it either.
Whoever did this isn't likely to wait around for ZEUTH to literally starve to
death: they'll probably attack summarily when the team is sufficiently weak.

And that time would be very soon now.  Some members of the team are in favor
of going and pulverizing whoever put them into this mess, but Fudou (appearing
as usual out of nowhere) asks Apollo if he's actually capable of any such
thing.  He's brought no food with him, and Apollo's peeved enough that he
tells his commander that he'll kick his ass if he doesn't have anything useful
to say.  Fudou smirks and tells Apollo that he should be a bigger man than
to quarrel over a missed meal of two.  Who Apollo _should_ be worried about
are the Hundred Demons knocking at their doorstep.

They say that grudges over food are scary.  They also say that an army runs on
its stomach, in which case ZEUTH will be crawling to the finish line on this
one.  Of course it was the Hundred Demons behind this mess, specifically Glar.
He's smug at the apparent success of his nefarious plan, and isn't going to
let the group see his flagship, also the control center for those nanomachines.
He thinks there's no way the group can see through his stealth defenses, and
Rand's suggestion to just carpet-bomb the whole area doesn't seem feasible
either.  What to do...?

 Be defeated and hungry as hell, or retreat and starve to death, seem to be
 the leading candidates.  Just then Fudou weighs in with some odd words of
 wisdom: you get hungry because you want to eat.  An empty stomach is not
 necessarily synonymous with a _hungry_ stomach, and it's that "emptiness"
 that gives rise to power.  This makes no sense to most of the team, but Jun
 gets it: people have used fasting since ancient antiquity to expand their
 senses... in this case, their sense of smell!  Sirius gets it too now, and
 tells Apollo to sniff out the Hundred Demons' food: after all, these "demons"
 are living beings too.  The ladies have been fasting a day longer than even
 Apollo has, and as a result can contribute much to the cause.
</pre><pre id="faqspan-3">
 Man, grudges over food ARE scary, scary enough to make even Glar draw up
 short.  PH34R the primordial power of Appetite!  Of course, the team are
 still famished as hell, but to help them in their battle against Glar, Fudou
 gives them one more bit of advice: hunger is the greatest spice!

The revitalized ZEUTH make short work out of the Hundred Demons, and Fudou has
a suitable reward waiting for them: a transport plane loaded with food.  As
Fudou said, the food tastes even better now that the team are starving, and
Daisuke points out something important as the team dig in.  This feast was
possible thanks to the Earth's bounty, and the team needs to be properly
grateful for it.  And no, Apollo can't have any of _his_ meat.  Rand and Gain
are both planning on stuffing their faces, making the booze they're saving
for later all the more poignant.

Paula learns to appreciate just how tasty roasted lizard can be from Jiron and
friends.  Renton is being kept busy as a short-order chef, but thanks to
Eureka's sandwich he'll at least have a bit of energy to keep him going... if
he would actually eat the darn thing.  Instead, he decides to treasure it as
some kind of memento, and Liina notes that even though his stomach and head
are both empty, his heart seems full enough.

One would think that this would be enough to quash all the diet mania, but
Liina knows better.  The Aquarion girls are all _quite_ overwrought with
ecstasy over their newfound appreciation for food, and the next day in the
locker room they all discover that they've gained back all the weight of their
enforced fast and then some.  Sarah explains this "rebound": their metabolism
had gotten more efficient during the fast, and that makes it all the easier
to get caloric value (read: tonnage) from what food they do eat.  One whole
week down the drain as far as waistlines go...


Stage 4.2: Miss Adette's Struggle

Ana is nowhere to be seen, causing a momentary panic before Gaury explains
that she and and Adette have gone to a nearby city.  This makes Sara somehow
nervous, and probably with good reason.  Adette doesn't mind being recruited
as Ana's chauffeur, but she is a bit curious what secret errand Ana's running.
She promises not to tell, and Ana finally reveals that she wants to contact
her father.  It's not that she's homesick; rather, she's worried about how
Kids Munt won't leave Yapan's Ceiling alone even though its Exodus has been
successful.  Is Ulgsk, where her father still lives, suffering a similar fate?
Adette reminds her that ZEUTH took down Kids' trump card (the Overdevil), but
Ana counters that Siberian Rail still exists, and Kids isn't exactly the
world's most forgiving soul.  Ana could have used the UN terminal aboard the
ZEUTH ships, but this way no one will be looking over her shoulder and
worrying.  Adette loves her logic, and the fact that Ana chose her as guardian,
and proclaims that she'll help Ana in every way possible.

Just then Zacky walks over, recognizing Medaiyu's daughter.  The _former_
Saint Reagan agent thinks he can worm his way back into the military if he
can capture her, and it takes Adette _and_ her trio of minxes to buy enough
time to make a run for it.  Zacky isn't giving up though: with Artham off
doing his own thing, Zacky thinks it's time he showed some initiative of his
own too.  He isn't fazed by the sight of the former Siberian Rail ace, and
orders his men to capture the girl at all costs.  Adette meant what she told
Ana though: she will protect her no matter what it takes.

 She tells Ana to hold on tight, since her piloting can get a bit rough.
 It's okay if Ana is afraid: Adette was petrified the first time she had to
 enter actual combat, and she was quite a bit older than Ana is now.  But
 whatever happens, she'll see Ana gets home safe.  It's only right that the
 older protect the younger.

 The small fry stand no chance against her, and when she sees an opening in
 their lines she seizes it.  Zacky rushes over to stop her, but Adette isn't
 afraid to face his Overman.  She tells him that if he insists on tangling
 with her, he'd better be prepared for _both_ of them to go down together.
 Unfortunately, that would mix Ana up in the carnage.  As Adette hesitates,
 Ana takes matters into her own hands and dismounts, telling Zacky he should
 be ashamed of himself for trying to use her as leverage.  There's no way
 such cheap tactics will lead to his wishes coming true!

 Adette loves it, and even Zacky has to admit that Ana sounds every inch (not
 that many of them, but still) a princess.  Still, he won't stand for the
 insult, and resolves to teach her a little lesson.  Adette doesn't give him
 the chance though: her "lady schoolteacher ninja" skillz blow Zacky back
 several football fields' worth, leaving plenty of room for Ana to escape
 while she makes good on her threat to take Zacky with her.  She tells Ana
 to give her regards to Gaury and apologizes for not being able to see Ana
 home in person.

 Fortunately, a little outside help shows up, letting Adette beat a hasty
 retreat.  Gaury has come to the rescue, bringing the rest of (this half of)
 ZEUTH with him.  Gainer wants to know what she and Ana were up to, but Adette
 brusquely tells Gainer not to pry into ladies' affairs.  Instead, he's gotta
 help her take revenge on mister cheater over yonder.  Adette is so commanding
 a presence that some of the other women wonder if Gaury will really be happy
 with her as his wife.  Gaury's slightly naughty smirk speaks volumes.

 Artham's one-time right hand man makes a hasty exit, his dreams bigger than
 his skills can keep up with.  A fitting foil for Artham himself, really.

With the bad guys toasted off, Adette leads Ana to the UN Center.  Count
Medaiyu is overjoyed to see his daughter again, and surprised in equal measure
when her first question is about the security of Ulgsk.  He hesitates,
confirming Ana's worst fears about Siberian Rail retaliation against her father
and people.  She tells him she'll head home at once, but he cuts her off in
mid-sentence, saying that no child of his brash enough to go off and Exodize is
welcome at home.  He tells her he won't permit her to show her face, and Ana
runs off crying.  Adette tells him that he's gone too far, especially given how
much Ana's worried about him.  He's well aware of that, actually, but he's also
mindful of the embers of war falling all around his little kingdom.  The end of
his House's rule, and the lands it controls, is only a matter of time.  He
wants Ana to expand her horizons, gaining the strength needed to live on her
own.

So long as Ana lives, the Medaiyu blood will not run out.  He realizes Ana
must trust Adette implicitly, and although he doesn't know Adette, he implores
her to look after his daughter.  Adette muses that it must be nice to have a
family, and assures the count that she'll take very good care of his daughter,
her student.  She also tells him that she'll bring his daughter home once the
war is over, and advises him to live long enough to see the day.

Ana is still crying when Adette comes and finds her and her minxes.  She tells
Adette not to think ill of her father, who surely wanted to tell her to
continue her journeys out of concern for her.  A happy thought on one level,
but still very painful for such a small girl to have to hear.  As she buries
her face in Adette's ample bosom and bawls, Adette smiles and inwardly tells
Ana to cry as much as she wants.  No one else will see Ana's tears, and
Adette won't take the two of them home until Ana's good and ready.


Stage 4.3: At the Risk of Pride

Norman is more than just the perfect butler: he's also the perfect bartender,
a fact which the older members of the team greatly appreciate.  His drinks,
his conversational timing -- everything is impeccable.  Jamir was more than
happy to let his ship's cafeteria get converted into a lounge, though it's
a bit unusual that the bar is packed this early in the morning.  Roger leaves
after only one drink, saying that he's got an errand to run.  Stoner has to
admire Roger's style, attired in a suit even at a time like this, but Dorothy
points out that Roger owns no other clothing _but_ suits.  She's quite
uninterested in wherever Roger's going, even though there's the (outside)
possibility that it's some kind of date.

Of course, what it actually is is Negotiating.  A certain polite individual
has requested his services by name, using a Federation solider as an
intermediary.  Roger takes the job, which is delivering a present to a
certain someone.  Before setting out, he tells Mail to come out of hiding,
having spotted her easily from years of watching out for tails.  Mail stammers
that she wasn't sure if Roger was going on some kind of date, and when Roger
allows that he _will_ be meeting a certain lady, she peppers him with
questions about when the wedding will be.

She's so absurd yet earnest that even Roger has to smile, agreeing to let her
come along on his mission.  He tells her that this is in part thanks for
Rand taking good care of Dorothy, and in part out of his general policy of
treating ladies with respect... even underage ones.

Their first stop is a flower garden, from which Roger has been instructed to
arrange for some flowers to be purchased.  The woman he's meeting is the owner
of the garden... not exactly date material as such.  Roger notes that Mail
seems awfully interested in his relations with women, and isn't immediately
clear what Mail means when she says she's only doing this out of concern for
Dorothy.  Mail is sure that Dorothy (who, let's not forget, is an android)
loves Roger and shows it through her incredibly dry mode of speech.  Roger is
far less certain, allowing that Dorothy has an actual heart but vague on
whether she has the capacity for love.  He's certainly never thought about
whether he would be the object of that love, and cuts their conversation short
when the gardener shows up.

Roger's employer is prepared to offer a substantial sum for certain flowers
from the garden, but "miss florist" isn't interested in selling at any price.
This garden was begun as a hobby by her grandfather, and through three
generations of hard work has reached its present glory.  Even the Breaking
didn't break the garden beyond repair, and the flowers are more or less her
life now.  Roger can identify with that, and takes his leave without any
attempt to hassle her: he doesn't want to collect a commission from his client
if it means trampling someone like her underfoot.

Before he leaves, a couple Breakers come over, representing Estee Company.
Mister Estee wants an answer from the florist about selling the land to him,
already ignoring her previous formal refusal.  As the Breakers start to
threaten the lady, Roger intervenes and tells them that there are limits to
mannerlessness, especially in a place like this.  He tells them that while
he's no formal bodyguard of hers, he won't stand for violence against women.
The Breakers decide not to cause a scene here, but warn the lady that Estee
isn't a very patient man.

Roger is left pondering the connection between this humble florist and the
greedy real estate developer, and undertakes to negotiate with Estee on the
florist's behalf.  Great plan, squees Mail: take out the developer, get flowers
as a reward, pocket the fee from the original employer!  Not quite what Roger
had in mind: the two are separate jobs, and the florist offered him cash for
his time like any other assignment.  The last thing Roger wants to do is
use other people's hardships as a fulcrum for his own business interests.

Roger opens talks with Estee in a sympathetic tone, noting that the real
estate development company seems financially troubled these days.  Given how
the very land in this world has a tendency to teleport out of existence,
potential clients are understandably hesitant with their dough.  As Estee
sees it, buying land from people is an act of semi-charity on his part.  Or,
as Roger sees it, Estee is using the dimensional instability to coerce people
out of their property at illegally-low rates -- and threatening them with
violence if they don't comply.

Roger isn't here to talk about Estee's business stratagems though: he directly
asks the guy to keep his hands off the flower garden.  The man refuses,
threatening Roger with a little mayhem as well if he doesn't like it.  Roger
now knows in full what kind of slimeball Estee is, and Estee says he never
wants to see Roger's face again.  Roger amiably withdraws, though he rather
suspects that Estee _will_ see him again, and soonish.  Lest Estee forget,
this town has things called "police" and "public opinion"... things which
Roger intends to use to make Estee change his ways.

It's already dark when Roger exits the office building.  Mail asks brightly
if he plans to use Big O to demolish the company, and Roger points out that
using violence to get his way would make him no better than the criminals,
and certainly no Negotiator worthy of the name.  His primary weapons are
knowledge and words, and physical violence is only justified for self-defense
or as a last resort.  Mail, and pretty much everyone else on the team, hadn't
had that impression of Roger, given how much he's used Big O in his work.
Basically, Roger is less the world's most violent Negotiator, and more it's
_unluckiest_ in terms of the people he interacts with being trigger-happy.  If
that makes him a "troublemaker", so be it.

Mail's not okay with that: she wants Roger to clear up the misunderstanding
before it possibly brings him to blows with other members of ZEUTH.  Roger
pauses a moment, and tells Mail that her feelings for Rand are confused.  Rand
has been by her side all her life, and she has mistaken her familial feelings
for romantic ones.  ...Or, so everyone in ZEUTH says.  Mail protests that that
isn't true regardless of who said it: her feelings really are love!  Roger's
point exactly: if one has something truly unshakable within them, they
shouldn't mind what others say.  He tells Mail to keep today's conversation
between the two of them, and says that he wants to ascertain the truth of
everything with his own eyes.  That's why he left Paradigm City and joined the
ZEUTH, and why he isn't regretful over the misunderstanding that led him and
his comrades to fight the other half of ZEUTH.  Mistakes can always be
corrected, so long as that unshakable core is present.

Smiling, he allows that he too is human, and can certainly be wounded by being
misunderstood.  But there _are_ people who understand him, and can call him
by his proper name.  So long as they exist, he will exist too.  For now, it's
time to gather all the proof needed to ruin Estee, which from what Roger's
heard shouldn't be too hard.  The primary obstacle are those punks from this
morning, who've been sent to silence the "squawking crow".  This certainly
saves Roger the trouble of hunting his proof, though without a gun it's less
clear what Roger can do to prevent physical harm.  Well, there's always the
option to run like hell.

The bad guys turn out to have Walker Machines, which they gleefully haul out
for the chase.  Since the whole damn town can see the behemoths clomping down
the street, Roger needn't lift a finger on the publicity department.  The
punks are unafraid of the law, which they think will turn the other way when
faced with Estee's overwhelming forces... which there are even more of lurking
in the bushes.  These include Chiran Devices and mobile suits, and are
collectively known as the Guard System.  They're all obsolete, they're all
on autopilot, and they're all after two unarmed people on foot in a reckless
show of military might.  Roger tells Mail that it's time to invoke that
"in self-defense" clause, and summons Big O.

..Which doesn't show up on cue, unlike in Paradigm City.  This emboldens
the punks further, and Mail thinks the end has come.  Not so fast, says Roger:
remember that person who understands him?  That would be Dorothy, passing
familiar with how Roger does things and perfectly poised to support him when
the need arises.  Neither far away nor underfoot, Dorothy always seems to keep
the perfect distance between them.  Rand is along for the ride, as is the
clueless Raven and the rest of ZEUTH to boot.  If the punks thought they were
in for an easy fight, they are _sadly_ mistaken.

In panic, Estee hops on the UN and tries to claim that ZEUTH are here to take
over their town on behalf of the Federation.  Mail's learned to let such
barking dogs be and concentrate on what she knows is right, and when ZEUTH
shows no signs of slowing down Estee has no choice but to open fire [or
surrender, which these goons seemingly never do].  Since Dorothy's in the
cockpit already, she tells Roger she'll support him directly.  He smiles and
observes that she's in a good mood today: did something nice happen?  Not
that you could tell from her deadpan expression...

 As Roger enters the fray, he observes that the Big O is handling very
 smoothly today... perhaps because Dorothy is here?  She tells him that it's
 because of Norman's maintenance, and he says he was just making a joke to
 try to dispel the tension he's sure she feels.  She drily notes that it
 seems to be he who had something nice happen today.

Estee's big dreams end up in smoking ruin in short order, bringing part of
Roger's job to a close in somewhat more spectacular fashion than anticipated.
As for the other half... he goes to visit the florist in person, accepting her
meager payment and reminding her that he doesn't do what he does for profit.
He enjoyed getting this ruffian out of her town.  She actually does give him
some of her flowers of her own accord: anemone blossoms, which Roger recalls
signify fleeting love in flower language.  The florist gives him a quizzical
look, and says that they also carry the meaning of "expectation".  Roger passes
this off as a lack of education on his part, and the florist tells him that
now he can complete his original mission too.  Roger almost frowns at that,
then slowly smiles and asks her if he could presume upon her for one flower
more.

It turns out that Roger's original job was to get a present for the love of a
Federation soldier's life.  Roger pauses, then comes as close to stammering
as he'll ever get as he tells Dorothy he's about to do something out of
character.  He tells her thank you, and that he's always grateful for her
support.  He gives her the flower, the "present for the love of his life", and
she tells him, "her beloved", that she's grateful in turn.  Roger is so
shocked that he calls her by her full name, and she drily tells him she was
joking.  As Roger struggles to regain his composure, she tells him she wanted
to make someone smile and feel good like the other women in ZEUTH.  He offers
to smile for her in apology for being shocked, but Dorothy tells him she _is_
genuinely thankful for the present.  Case closed, except for the question of
how his client makes out.

Turns out the Federation soldier is Dominic, returning to base after his
lengthy mission.  He's been from Galia to South Ameria on Operation Crusade,
and says that the two of them are going to have plenty to do now.  Anemone
is quite glum however, saying that Dewey hasn't come to see her once all the
time Dominic's been gone.  She guesses he really does see her as nothing but
a tool, and Dominic tells her she mustn't think that way.  She snaps that she
doesn't want to hear it from him, regretting it almost immediately and
lapsing into an uncomfortable silence.  Dominic summons his smile again, and
tells Anemone he has a souvenir for her: the flower that bears her name.
Anemone's heard that her flower means "vanishing hope", and fully expects to
be cast aside like a broken implement the next time she fails.  Dominic
corrects her: in flower-language, anemone means "expectation" according to
the person who helped him find the flower.  Is Dominic expecting good things
to come from her?  Not just Dominic, but Dewey as well.  Anemone finally
smiles, telling Dominic she never expected a present this thoughtful from
him.  Her smile is more precious to Dominic than life itself, and for her he'd
face the whole world if he had to.  None of this "fleeting love" business:
he means to save her however he must.


Stage 4.4: To Convey to You Those Feelings

Pierre calls Ryou to his room late at night, barely containing himself as he
tells Ryou there's something he needs his help with.  He finally bursts out
that he wants to Combine so much he can't control it any more!!!  And !!! for
good measure.  Slash.  The end.

Afterwards, the guy is acting downright manic-depressive, mumbling "Combine"
under his breath and generally behaving like a lunatic.  The other crew members
wonder what the heck happened -- it's not like getting turned down by a single
girl (which happens all the time) would have done it.  Maybe this has something
to do with the letter Fudou gave him from home?  Roaby heard it was from
Pierre's folks back home, and it's possible it contained some blockbuster news
or something.  Then again, maybe Pierre's fallen in love... though it's almost
impossible to get Wits to just spit that out.

Love, huh?  From the guy who seemingly loves all the world's women in
equal measure?  Well, Paula has a guess who the lucky winner might be, someone
she's seen Pierre regard with eyes not unlike a wild animal's right before
sinking its teeth into its prey.  That sounds like trouble, and the pilots
rush to investigate whoever that is...

Eureka has gone over to stare at Enil, telling her after a moment that she
always looks so pretty.  Enil will accept compliments from either gender with
a smile, and Eureka asks if she can stay with Enil for a while.  No problemo,
since Enil will have her hands full servicing her Mobile Armor for some time.
She explains that its name means "Hope", and insofar as its let her join the
ZEUTH it seems to be living up to that name.  She certainly takes diligent
care of it, trying to ease as much of its battle damage as she can.

..Doh, there's that scar on Eureka's cheek.  Eureka says despondently she's
sure Renton likes pretty girls, but Enil assures her she's plenty pretty.
Speaking of Renton, he's half-walking, half-running to keep up with Pierre and
trying to ask him something.  Pierre's got a wild look in his eyes, telling
Renton he's got something important to do.  Garode's with Renton, and tries
telling Pierre the question is about girls.  Pierre distractedly tells him to
go ask Kei or Roaby, each first-class pickup artists in their own right.
May be, but both of them seem to have found a main squeeze, counters Renton.

That brings Pierre up short.  As he names Mimsy and Sara, Garode grins and
tells him he's the only true pickup artist left.  Pierre harrumphs and says
that he's got someone he loves too, but isn't willing to divulge who.  This is
where Enil and Eureka walk over, having overheard Pierre and especially
curious who he's in love with.  At the sight of her, Pierre apparently loses
his power of speech, then starts twitching violently.  Garode hollers for
the women to flee whatever fit is about to befall the Frenchman, but before
anyone can react Pierre bellows out the name "Esperanza".  Over and over
again.  Did we mention this is a mech's name?

The raving continues until Tex administers a sedative and has Pierre hauled
off to sickbay.  One theory was that Pierre somehow fell in love with a mech
(unless it's from Godannar, this seems unlikely anyway), but with Tifa and
Liina's help he sort of put that theory to rest.  He was incoherent, and an
indescribable darkness filled his heart.  What turned out to be going on --
and Tex doesn't want this going beyond Pierre's immediate teammates -- is that
Esperanza is the name of Pierre's first love, who has just become engaged to
his older brother.

The shock of this lost love has affected Pierre badly, and presumably led to
his fixation on Combining.  Tex has a theory about what it all means, but
before he can even explain it Misha bursts in and says his theory was just
proven right.  Pierre is now Dependent with a capital D on Combining -- meaning
he may die without it.  Misha's discovered that the dopamine spike he gets when
combining is at least double that of the other Elements, with the somewhat
staggering implication that he feels twice as good yet as they do(!!) Tex
believes that his brain took the final step off the precipice of Dependency in
a misguided attempt to assuage his lost love, and the results are more than it
can stand.  The doctors calculate that even one more Combination in his
current condition would permanently destroy his mind.

Paula interrupts at that point, looking for where Garode, Renton and Eureka
are.  There are indications they sortied on their own to investigate a burst
of higher-dimensional particles, the telltale sign of Fallen Angels.  Suddenly
something occurs to Tifa: something she said may have set Eureka off...

The trio of kids have _not_ been tangling with Fallen Angels; rather, they've
been shopping for something Eureka doesn't want to show the others.  Whatever
it is has something to do with a question she asked Tifa before leaving, and
she's quite firm that she doesn't want to say now.  Renton won't press her,
and although he assures Garode he's not being a bother, it's probably true
that Renton wouldn't have minded a "date" with Eureka either.

They don't quite make it home though before trouble strikes.  It's a huge
passel of various Fallen Angels, including the frightening visage of Moroha.
He senses in Eureka the innumerable lives swarming between dimensions, and
wouldn't mind knowing more about their power to help fuel the Fallens' own
dimensional jailbreak.  He plans to take her Prana, but to do that he'll
have to get past Renton's determination to keep Eureka safe.

 ZEUTH show up pretty quickly to help, but the Aquarion isn't sortying despite
 the fact that their primary targets are on the scene.  Pierre has locked
 himself in the Vector Mars' cockpit and won't come out.  He's screaming to be
 allowed to launch, and Talho orders Doggy to keep the hatch firmly shut.
 Moroha thinks Aquarion is afraid of him, and contents himself with trying to
 grab Eureka and move on to the closest town for more mayhem.  He sorties twin
 Cherubim Warriors, and Pierre redoubles his cries.  They mustn't be allowed
 to reach San Jose -- he's got to protect his family!!

 At hearing the different note in Pierre's voice, Sirius and Apollo order
 Doggy to let Pierre sortie.  He doesn't lose his mind immediately at any
 rate, burning with a fire both beautiful and intense and kicking one of the
 Cherubim soldiers squarely in the ass.  Unfortunately, the twins share a
 heart and soul: unless both of them are taken down within the same turn,
 they'll be able to regenerate forever.  Garode and Renton rush over to
 help Pierre, realizing that he's fighting for the one woman he actually
 loves.

 Once the twins are defeated, Pierre starts gibbering again -- it appears
 he may finally have burned himself out.  Fudou gets on the com and says
 that the kanji for "person" looks like two people supporting each other...
 according to someone's stupid interpretation.  After all, is it _necessarily_
 the case that a person must fall when deprived of support?  Something must
 be done before one can offer another support, or receive support from
 another.  Basically, one has to fall down before someone else can pick them
 up, and Pierre hasn't fallen completely yet.  Something inside him still
 seeks support... is Dependent on it, in fact.

 Just then, the twin Cherubim reappear.  Apparently getting rid of them
 within a turn of each other isn't good enough: their death has to be
 _simultaneous_.  Pierre now ponders his deep-seated need for support, the
 impetus behind his womanizing and eventually his Combination addiction.
 Fudou tells him that it's only after one falls completely to the ground that
 one can stand back up upon it, this time with two firm legs as the "person"
 kanji actually depicts.  And when that "person" spreads their arms wide,
 they become "great".  Let the "children" now become "adults".

 Pierre stands once more, and Sirius tells Sylvie to let him pilot: he wants
 to be part of what Pierre is about to do.  Pierre, soccer star that he is,
 prepares for the championship-winning goal and unleashes one hell of a
 bicycle kick.  The twin Cherubim are well and truly trounced, and all
 Moroha can do is retreat with promises to one day use that power for his
 own ends.  Pierre is now fully back in his right mind, ready to counsel the
 kids on girl stuff and to get back to womanizing.  He can now also bid
 Esperanza a sincere farewell, wishing her happiness in her new life.

After the battle, the older guys are waxing a bit philosophical in the bar.
While Pierre's transformation certainly lit a fire under the younger kids,
Holland and Roger think it'd be better if they stayed as kids while they still
can.  And when the time comes, the experiences of youth will have a lot of
sway over the outcome.  Rand notes that girls seem to have had a lot to do
with today's events as well, and Jamir proposes a toast: to boys and girls.

Said boys and girls have a lot to think about from today's events.  Love
certainly comes in many forms, and it takes work to make that love get through
to its intended recipient.  Speaking of which, what Eureka bought was some
makeup, having to rely on the store clerk to recommend brands.  Between the
young women, it's certain they can teach Eureka to conceal her scar with
makeup, and credit goes to Tifa for the idea.  After all, Tifa tried makeup
once herself.  She didn't wear it long, but she felt like she was prettier
when she did it, and everyone is sure Eureka can become pretty as well.  She
ends up wanting to do the actual makeup process with her own hands, and the
others wish her good luck in making Renton take notice.

Renton meanwhile is hanging with the guys in the convenience store.  Pierre is
back on the prowl for women, restoring the pickup squad to full strength.
Sort of: the other two of them have to balance the womanizing with romancing
their real girlfriends.  The most amazing part is that Wits is the one who
first figured out the source of Pierre's worries: he's normally a tight-ass
who doesn't think in romantic terms... until recently that is.

At about this time Eureka walks in, and to say her makeup experiment went awry
would be a grotesque understatement.  Renton asks what happened to her face,
and Eureka predictably runs away.  Kei orders Renton to chase after her, and
as the denser guys wonder what that was all about, the savvy guys hope Renton
passes this rather severe test of his manhood.  Renton finally catches up with
her, figuring that the kids pulled a prank on her or something.  Eureka won't
let him wipe the makeup off though: Tifa and the others told her it would make
her prettier.  All she wanted to do is make him happy...  Renton thinks a
moment and tells her that she _is_ pretty, but that she didn't have to put on
makeup to achieve that.  He loves her just the way she is!!

Well done, says Enil as she walks out of the shadows.  Quite a few of the
more experienced women were watching the drama actually, and are about to give
the girls a lesson in adulthood.  This makeup thing: a little goes a
surprisingly long way, especially when one can rely on the wonders of young
smooth skin.  Too much makeup actually produces the opposite of the intended
effect, and even Gidget is skirting the line these days.  Eureka has been
transformed into the poster child for moderate makeup, and sent on her way
with every assurance that whatever she looks like, Renton will accept her
fully.  Talho's happy smile doesn't elude Liina's notice: Liina suspects
it's because of the new life stirring inside Talho.  Liina is of course more
perceptive than most, but Talho reckons it's about time she breaks the news to
the team.  And when she does, she wants Mail to have her camera ready.  Mail
doesn't know what this "news" is, but she'll be right there with her finger
on the shutter.

---

Multidimensional year 11/8/0001.

Lots of stuff has happened, but my darling and I are doing just fine today.
It looks like our stay at Treizoa Institute is about over.  It sounds like
once we leave the fighting is going to get even worse... But there's no time
to worry about that now!  It's exactly because the world's so mixed up that
we all have to try our best, right?!  Between my darling's Heat Smile and my
Work Smile, today and tomorrow will go great!  Okay, good night.

 -- Acting President, Mail Beater


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EPISODE 5: Secret Epilogue

Thanks to ZEUTH's heroics, Spacetime Repair has been achieved and the
Multidimensional World is in no further danger of collapse.  However, a dark
shadow bent on world destruction crept near.  The members of ZEUTH, recognizing
the oncoming catastrophe, banded together once again and resolved to fight.
Just what is this new peril, and can ZEUTH save the world again?

[Rand Route]

"The Itinerant Repairman"

Still employed as a repairman in the badlands, just like before the
Dimensional collapse.  Relations with his self-proclaimed fiancee are also
as before, as the pair continue their travels in search of her long-lost
father.

---

A flashback to Daisuke's departure for his homeworld Freed, bidding his
friends at the Photon Power Lab a fond farewell.  Maria tells Sayaka not to
lay a hand on Kouji when she's absent, and both girls seem to relish the
romantic battles to come over Mazinger's (clueless) pilot.  Though the world
is out of danger, there are still plenty of problems to keep everyone occupied.

Camille is preparing for a journey of his own, the Zeta and other related
mobile suits already loaded for transport.  Amuro tells him that with the
remaining Titans executed, the Yugo are slated to become part of the Federation
army -- no surprise since the Titans/Yugo fragdown was essentially an
army internecine conflict from the outset.  Not all the pilots are comfortable
with becoming Federation troops after all they've been through, but they
should have plenty of time to come to terms with it.  Shinn and the others are
presumably doing the same, as is Quatro: he's decided to leave the mantle of
"Char Aznable" behind for good.  Quatro actually wanted Amuro to try his hand
at government too, but Amuro claims to have his hands full with being a mere
pilot and wants to stay that way a bit longer.  But he'll consider making the
jump if ever circumstances call him to.

The list of names on Orb's war memorial has grown considerably in these past
two years, despite the vows of peace Kira and the others swore then.  Kira
and Lacus are actually planning on heading to the Plants for good, feeling a
sense of obligation to reattach to the world they helped shape from the
sidelines until bearing witness to Durandal's death.  It's an open question
whether the people of the Plants will forgive Lacus for not stepping up two
years before and somehow preventing the mess, but Shinn says that there's
ample time to persuade them with words.  Cagalli will do what she can to heal
Orb's wounds, and Shinn hopes to show Rei how good he and his friends can
make the world.

Marin is preparing for his own departure, thanking Jamie and the rest of the
Earthlings for everything he's learned and experienced on his sojourn on
Earth.  Marin's still got to try to find a new home for the people of S-1, and
although he'd love his comrades along, he tells them they've got to stay and
guard the dimensional borders with the rest of Blue Fixer.  Marin will have at
least one stalwart companion along for the ride: Kiraken and the whole God
Sigma team, thanks to the ultra-warp drive Julie helped create by amalgamating
Eldar and S-1 tech.  Teral has returned back to Eldar, to fight to save his
own world with what he's gained in his battles on Earth.  Toshiya is confident
that Teral will overthrow those who've turned Trinity Energy to evil ends,
and Marin is equally confident that he, Aphrodia and the whole crew will be
equally successful in their own voyage of salvation.

Somewhere downtown near his home, Kappei knows it's about time for Marin and
the others to depart.  It's also time for the long-awaited showdown with
Kagetsu, who really must have balls to challenge one of the ZEUTH pilots.
Kagetsu scoffs that ZEUTH is disbanded and both Zanbot and the King Beal
deliberately sunk beneath the sea, but Kappei still has his "ZEUTH Soul"
burning within.  Uchuuta and Emi watch over their teammate from the sidelines:
Kappei's true fight is just beginning.  Banjou's fight isn't yet over either
from the reports that he's gone to Mars, ever the wanderer until his ultimate
foe is toast.

Sandman's fight may or may not be over: he's still here obviously, and still
determined as ever to protect the beauty of Earth.  Raven too expects to one
day remove her mask and reveal the truth to Eiji and the others.  Said posse
offer to help Kappei, but Kappei is having none of it: he's dead serious about
the impending bout... that is, until a load of fresh "musubi" is served,
whereat the whole crew start chowing down.  Sandman declares that this is
their due, for fighting so beautifully to ensure peace.

Kei and Orson decided to keep the world the way it is, and have to admit it
ain't half bad.  Under other circumstances, Kei would be spending all his time
appreciating the beautiful women from all the different dimensions, but all
Kei can think about now is Mimsy and the new life growing within her.  Time
for Kei to grow up at last, and the same can be said for Orson, who is going
to have to call Kei "father-in-law".  Both of them will have to get used to the
life of the Emarn merchants, and neither seem too sad about this fact.

Sylvie is still down in the dumps after the departure of both Apollo and her
brother Sirius, looking up into the sky as though waiting for the two of them
to descend.  Though the world was certainly saved, neither of the two of them
-- or the elusive Commander Fudou -- have been seen since.  Pierre is certain
they're all of them alive somewhere, and Sylvie can only hope it won't take
another 12,000 years to see them again.  Liina reminds her that time and space
are both illusions born of human doubt, or so Fudou had it anyway.  That's what
Sylvie needed to hear, and says that she'll put her doubts aside.  If it takes
jumping twelve millennia into the future, then that's just what she'll do.
That's the spirit, says Fudou as he appears out of nowhere.  As if on cue, he
introduces the people he's brought with him, none other than Sirius and Apollo,
apparently as good as new.

Roger is back in Paradigm City, doing his Negotiator thing on the theory that
it's a necessary service.  All very well and good, but Angel reminds Roger
that instead of rehashing his raison d'etre he might want to consider answering
his phone.

Elsewhere in Belforest, Axel has been left in charge of Eureka's "kids" while
Renton and Eureka are off elsewhere.  Holland left the kids in Axel's care,
which Axel agreed to in part because Renton seems to be the only family member
of his who actually came home to him.  As a way of inducting these kids into
the Thurston clan, Axel takes them to have a "Big Burger", one of Renton's
favorite foods.  Lo and behold, here comes Renton in the flesh with Eureka
at his side.  Renton thinks ruefully to Rand that, after all he's been
through, he's come back to the worst and yet most-important town on Earth.

In the vicinity of, um, Vicinity, Rolan is overseeing the interment of the
White Doll, aka the Turn-A Gundam.  His theory is that it's best to let the
thing slumber after all the good work it's done, and at least Tifa concurs.
All isn't wine and roses though: Soshie put Gyaban's marriage proposal on
indefinite hold, saying that she's not ready to decide her future fully yet.
Roaby is glad he still has a chance, having officially given up on Sara (who
is in love with Jamir).  Wits and Tonya look like they're in it for the long
haul.  Jamir is busy enough rebuilding the Federation government that he's
left the Freeden to the rest of his crew, and Garode is determined to stick by
Tifa's side no matter what comes their way.

As they prepare to leave, Diana bids them a safe journey.  The queen of the
moon is quite happy living on the Earth, leaving Kiel to handle matters in her
stead.  Harry's assigned to guard her so there's little worry of her coming
to harm, giving Diana more time to learn about Earth in preparation for
bringing the Moon Race here once more -- and _peacefully_ this time.  After all
the team's been through, there ought to be a way.

Jiron and the Iron Gear folks have given Gainer and friends a ride to Siberia.
Nobody has any illusions about "happily ever after", even though the world-wide
Exodus is over.  What's needed now is the will to keep shaping the world into
what everyone wants it to be, which certainly isn't wanting among ZEUTH
themselves.  Adette will probably continue teaching, though she figures it'd
be less stressful than combat.  At least the pay is steady, which is more than
the Iron Gear team will be able to say once they return to Zora and resume
their cargo business.  Gainer does ask one favor of Jiron though: if he sees
Gain anywhere, he should tell him that Gainer hasn't finished off repaying his
debt to him yet.

Finally we get to Rand, who Holland and Gain have dropped off in the middle of
nowhere.  The two men pledge to contact Rand if they find any clues to his
latest missing person: Mail.  The next time Rand sees Holland, Holland'll have
at least one child for Rand to meet, which may or may not put a damper on any
manly drinking plans.  Gain and Holland head East, and no sooner do they leave
than a Breaker comes over to Rand.  It's the same guy who sold Mail that
camera waaaaaaay back when, and he's got another find for Rand: Mail herself!!

It seems the Sphere was taken from her body at the moment of Dimensional
Repair, letting her catch up on the last four years of aging.  To Rand's
horror, the only thing different is her hair, which has grown long enough to
trigger the "let's get married" clause.  Oh well, something will work out...
he's The Heat after all!

---

Thanks to ZEUTH's heroics, Spacetime Repair has been achieved and the
Multidimensional World is in no further danger of collapse.  Of course, not all
the chaos was quelled.  The First Multidimensional War that engulfed the world
left deep scars in all nations and all peoples.  Nevertheless, the faces of
the populace were joyous.  The long-sought arrival of tranquil days brought
them great joy, and everyone believed that that hope would enable them to
build a better tomorrow.

But the tragedy and pain were not yet over.  In the shadow of the peoples'
hope, an unknown menace was about to awaken...

---

Gainer returns his Overman to its original owner, Count Medaiyu.  Medaiyu
won't comment on Gainer's participation in an Exodus, but he does thank him
for using the Overman to help save the world (and his daughter Ana).  He
also thanks Adette for helping Ana, though Ana coyly won't say why.  As for
the Overman, Medaiyu's family has long held that it not be seen by the eyes
of the masses -- guess there'll be no victory parade.  Medaiyu doesn't even
know the full details of why, but one of his distant ancestors apparently
acquired the Overman in Yapan.  It was lost during the Cataclysm, and the
family had to move heaven and earth to get it back... perhaps not so
surprising they don't want it on the loose again.  Oopsie, considering Gainer
kind of dragged it everywhere already.  Medaiyu reckons that a few traditions
need to be broken with every once in a while, but he probably isn't talking
about what happens next.

King Gainer somehow boots up and flies out of the palace entirely on its own.
Nobody, least of all Gainer himself, knows what it's doing, although one guess
is that it's looking for something.  Gaury and the others will try to hold it
down so Gainer can get into the cockpit.  It struggles mightily, but Gainer is
able to get in and temporarily quell his mech.  Was something...  calling it?
If so, it's part of something much bigger: Cynthia radios in to say that all
channels of the UN are broadcasting a series of dreadful events.

All over the world, unmanned robots went on a momentary shooting spree and then
ran off _somewhere_.  Everything from small settlements to large cities were
affected, and like DUH it's expected that the citizenry will panic with
memories of the war.  There are no clues as to who did this or why, or to
_where_ all the robots went.  Ain't a set of bloody car keys, are they?
Anyway, with no claims of responsibility and no idea what the hell is going
on, panic is running high.  To counter it, the Feds and Zaft issued the
following joint statement:

William Wallace Fitzgerald, president of the UN, strangely does not issue a
call to FREEDOM or woad-painting or any such shenanigans.  Rather, he
counsels the citizens to take the chill and wait for government investigators
to figure out which terrorists are behind the incident.  Panic and fear will
just play into the hands of whoever's responsible, and lest the mistakes of
the past recur, the people are to wait calmly for further official
announcements.  He promises that the Federation and all its allies will do
everything in their power to bring this incident to a swift conclusion.

Clearly something is badly wrong around here.  Suppose that your average
garden-variety Evil Organization(tm) wanted world domination: wouldn't they
have sprung into action during the last war, while all governments were
destabilized and weak?  Yes, several did just that.  But it's very hard to
believe that an Evil Organization(tm) would have deliberately stayed its
hand, AND been able to hide a mixed force of mecha big enough to cause havoc
on a global scale now.  Could it be that whoever controlled the berserk
mecha was also somehow calling King Gainer?

Kouji radios in to Gainer at this point, telling him that Yapan's Ceiling is
okay for now but adding that ZEUTH members are starting to regather.  North
Ameria will be the rallying point for the Federation and Zaft members, while
the rest of the crew will rally in Eastern Galia.  The last thing any of them
want is for this hard-won peace to get disrupted now.

Roger and Banjou, with help from Fudou, manage to track down Gwen.  Gwen asks
if Roger is trying to blame him for what happened in Paradigm City, but what
they're interested in is "Metropolis", Gordon Rosewater's apocalyptic book.
Just what was written on the final page?  What of the creation that follows
the destruction?

Stage 5.1: Creeping Darkness

Most of ZEUTH reach Eastern Galia, surveying the mess the robots made of a
(fortunately) already-abandoned city.  This kind of carnage is happening all
over the Earth's surface, and it's got to be stopped fast.  The Gekkostate will
take a while to arrive, but the rest of ZEUTH can start planning for battle.
That includes Kappei, determined to help despite the removal of his hypnotic
learning device.  Fishing King Beal out of the ocean will take some work, but
his family's already on the job.  Daisuke and Marin are present too, having
rushed over to save their second homeworld.  Kappei reckons that if someone
is so rotten as to cover the world in darkness, it's up to him to become the
moon to shine upon them all -- at least until Banjou the sun arrives.

Once the briefing starts, Kappei asks why the military has asked so many
civilians to help fight whoever the bad guy is.  Orson tells him that world
peace isn't exactly a smooth process, and ZEUTH have the rare advantage of not
being affiliated to any nation in particular: no need to worry about old
nationalistic sore spots.  Apparently public opinion has turned from regarding
the ZEUTH as terrorists to treating them as the A-team.

Here's how the plan comes together.  Accurate data is hard to come by, but so
far reports indicate the robots were mainly attacking facilities, keeping
actual human casualties to a bare minimum.  Likely this first wave of attacks
was meant as a demonstration of the bad guys' power -- and the city where ZEUTH
currently is is a further example of what the bad guys _could_ do if they
chose.  Interestingly, there's evidence that this is _not_ the work of a globe
spanning conspiracy: all the areas attacked are of no overt strategic
importance, and include many out-of-the-way settlements as well as larger
cities.

There is, however, a method to the madness: all the sites attacked correspond
to the locations of something the Federation army was investigating during the
war: Mountain Cycles.  The riddle of where the bad guys' firepower came from,
and where it likely vanished to, is answered if it all came from within the
Cycles themselves.  Think this has anything to do with King Gainer's little
rampage?  Of course it does.  The question now becomes who commanded all the
(presumably) unmanned relics from the Black History to go on a shooting spree?
Has to be someone who knows of the Black History's legacy, and has the know-how
to actually control all these mecha's autopilots.

Analysis of the wreckage of some of the enemy mecha from the first strike has
revealed that their autopilots all use a common system.  What's more, the
actual timing of the attack was completely autonomous: meaning that they were
all _preset_ to go on their rampage.  And whoever preset them apparently did</pre><pre id="faqspan-4">
so all the way back during the Black History, leaving no clues behind except
the nickname of the autopilot system itself: "Executor".  Not very nice of
that person to bury that kind of an Easter egg for future generations to find,
was it?

Gainer is pretty sure his Overman doesn't have an Executor System installed,
but is equally sure that whatever was "calling" it was somehow related.  The
fact that the Black History mecha are nevertheless types ZEUTH fought in the
present lends credence to the fact that an alternate ZEUTH actually
participated in the Black History itself.  The D.O.M.E. is still inert, so
it seems there's little hope of learning any more about the Black History from
that quarter.  Sandman has an alternate plan however, and asks for a little
more time to get a result.  In the meantime, both the ZEUTH here and in
North Ameria will have to do their best to figure out where the passel of
mecha went and counterattack if they strike again.

The Gekkostate finally arrive to help save the world for the present and
future generations.  Neither Talho nor Mimsy are obviously pregnant, but
they'll both have to battle fatigue as well as the bad guys.  Gain and Rand,
plus Yassaba Jin, have come along for the heroics.  Sara bitches at Gain for
leaving without saying goodbye, but Rand grins and says that Gain just did it
so no one would have to see him crying goodbye-tears.  ORLY?  Yes, really,
says Rand with his patented Heat Smile.  Mail's back too, having cut her hair
to keep it from getting underfoot.  Wait, wasn't there something about her
and Rand getting married if her hair grew?  NOT THE TIME, bellows Rand,
sternly reminding the menfolk why they're here.  Mail doesn't mind Rand
changing the subject, telling Adette that she's content to stay single for now.
If nothing else, Mail is always amused at Rand's flustered reactions.

Gainer wants to chat with Gain, and his reticence has nothing to do with
Gain's abrupt departure last time.  Gainer finally asks if Gain's noticed
anything weird about his Emperanza, like the controls not responding or
whatever.  No sign of that, which debunks one of Gainer's theories about a
recurrence of the Overmen trying to provoke its pilots' minds to fighting.
There must be something special about King Gainer after all.

Rounding out the reunion are Renton and Eureka, who didn't have to twist
Holland's arm too hard to get permission to rejoin the Gekkostate's crew.
Nirvash is unfortunately gone, but Renton and Eureka can still do quite a bit
to help out.  Renton's back to his old appearance except for special
occasions.

Just then sensors detect a large group of unknown mecha heading for the ZEUTH:
it seems the bad guys have decided to make it easy to find them.  With no
better means of detective work, ZEUTH meets their challenge head-on.  Those
of drinking age have every intention of finishing this off fast so they can
get down to a reunion beverage or two.  Meanwhile, Gainer is getting the same
queasy feeling he got when fighting the Overdevil and the Fallen Angels:
King Gainer is trying to tell him something.

 None of the team want to see any further damage dealt to the peace they
 fought so hard for.  Interestingly, it appears that the Sphere has returned
 to the Gunleon itself.

ZEUTH are off to a good restart, but sadly today's bad guys are too badly
trashed to yield any direct clues as to where they came from.  However, given
that there are no Mountain Cycles nearby, it seems clear that someone
deliberately sent the bad guys after ZEUTH -- the same someone who woke the
Black History relics up in the first place no doubt.  Is it that they fear
ZEUTH's interference?  Or, as Gainer suspects, were they coming to welcome
King Gainer back into their ranks?

As the crew ponders these questions, three reinforcements show up: Daitarn 3,
Big O, and the fortified Aquarion.  Yup, Apollo and Sirius are back, and
although Diva is down to only one mech capable of fighting, it's far better
than none.  Banjou wouldn't have shown up if he didn't have at least part of
the new bad guy's identity figured out, and Roger tells the team that the
North Amerian part of ZEUTH will be joining up shortly.  It seems they've
found the enemy's stronghold, and it's quite nearby: the "Land of the Rising
Sun", also known as Yapan...

The team has come full circle, back to the spot they met Raven and got mixed up
in untold amounts of mayhem.  The reunion goes quickly, with a few former
members like Quatro late to arrive due to their new governmental role.  And
who should be among the other side of ZEUTH, but Setsuko and friends!  Rand had
been worried about her after she went incommunicado, but it turns out she was
busy helping rebuild Glory Star.  That she can smile about it shows that
things must not have been too rough.  Turns out that Denzel and Toby are from
a parallel universe, and having them around is far better for Setsuko than the
alternative.  All three of them have the most essential ingredients within:
a sense of purpose and a sense of pride.

Come to find out that the Turn-A went on the rampage just like the King Gainer
did.  What's more, it actually used Moonlight Moth, though Rolan managed to
get into the cockpit and stop it before the damage was too extensive.  It
may be that the Turn-A has the Executor System installed somehow, and as
Sandman starts the briefing in earnest Gainer feels a strange sense of unease.
Just what is King Gainer trying to tell him?


Stage 5.2R: The Executors [Rand Route]

Turns out Banjou had a little errand to run before heading to Mars, and good
thing too given the important information he gathered.  This errand involved
Roger and Commander Fudou, and led indirectly to a few helpful factoids.  The
errand turned out to be acquiring a copy of Metropolis, a novelization as it
were of the Black History, and while Roger couldn't get the book itself, he
did arrange a meeting with someone who'd read it.  Banjou wanted to know
what happened _after_ the catastrophe, when the world was rebuilt -- the
"epilogue".  The book says that "the world born in the storm of great powers
was to be ruled by chaos, and those who dwelt there made ready their strength
against the time when the calamity should rise again."  And again: "At length
the night ends, and the dawn arrives.  From the Land of the Rising Sun shall
the Sun rise once more."

Banjou reckons that the mecha of the Mountain Cycles were deliberately left as
a means of preventing a repeat of the Dimensional Collapse, and came on line
as soon as the dimensional horizon restabilized in the wake of the last war.
While attacking cities certainly doesn't seem like an act of goodwill by
the world's ancestors, the entire purpose of the Executor System is not yet
clear.  Perhaps the mecha are the "destruction" half of the destruction and
rebirth business, and the "rebirth" half is the Earth itself?  Certainly humans
have been known to mess up the environment, and one imagines that mankind
would have to go before the Earth could conduct repairs.

To the extent that the system was _designed_ by humans, Quatro doubts it was
designed to obliterate humanity entirely.  More likely it's supposed to restore
a proper balance, perhaps forcing humanity off of Earth itself in the process.
Or did everyone forget what happened at the climax of the Black History, when
the Moonlight Moth was used to bury culture on the planet and the various
surviving groups spent the next several millennia retrenching and waiting for
the Earth to be properly habitable again?  The Executor System is presumably
tied into the same overall scheme.

This would explain why the Turn-A went out of control, but not what's going
on with King Gainer.  Banjou is at least fairly confident that neither mech
will go astray with someone at the controls, which is a bit of a relief.
Gainer thinks there's more to the story, but there's no way to tell what just
now.  Roger tells Diana that the reader of Metropolis is resolved to live at
least long enough to see the fate of the world, and stops short of actually
naming the somewhat two-faced Gwen.  In any case, the solution to everyone's
problems seem to lie in Japan, where the group imagines a secret control
center with some nefarious individual at the controls.  First stop: the plains
of Hokkaido, where a known Mountain Cycle awaits.

Tsugumi is afraid that the ringleader is already there and that the trip will
be a waste of time, but Apollo tells her that nothing gets done by worrying
about it.  He's actually not fazed when Fudou shows up and agrees with him, his
nerves having matured some from all the fighting.  That's what Fudou likes to
see: maturation, through the cycle of destruction and creation.  Apollo though
is suspicious that Fudou knows everything about what's going on, and is merely
enjoying watching the rest of the crew squirm.  Fudou counters by asking if
Apollo denies the concept of destruction and creation as a means to evolution.
Apollo will be damned if anyone else dies in the name of "evolution" -- there's
got to be other ways to move forward.  In that case, says Fudou, Apollo needs
to show him he can stop the ghosts of the Black History.

There's an uncomfortably warm welcome waiting for ZEUTH when they reach their
destination: the Executor System seems to be defending itself.  That explains
why Japan wasn't ravaged by the first wave of attacks at least.  Joseph and
Rolan both recognize the architecture of this place: identical to the Lost
Mountains they've encountered elsewhere.  Rolan thinks the Overmen they
faced the last time were part of the Executor System as well, awoken to
prevent the nuclear blast as part of their mission as environmental protectors.

Gainer senses an immense power calling King Gainer: it's a black Overman that
could be King Gainer's evil twin.  Gainer also senses that _it_ is the core
of the Executor System, but before the team can fire on it it retreats to a
safe distance.  The plan is clear: beat down its troops and follow the darn
thing posthaste.

 Hack and slash the bad guys for a while and a very bad surprise will appear:
 a slew of Turn-X's.  At the controls of the lead mech is mister Tin Gundam
 himself, still crazy, still bent on combat as the ultimate meaning of human
 life, and seemingly in league with the Executor System.  Apparently the
 Executor System decided to use the Turn-X's awakened Moonlight Moth system
 now that it can't use the Turn-A.  Diana is rather annoyed that all the
 fighting Ginganam loves so much hasn't actually taught him anything, but it's
 also true that the guy is still alive and kicking, unlike so many
 unfortunates along the way.

 Ginganam gets a very strange idea at this point: he wants to blow away the
 Gekkostate for daring to use the word for "moonlight" in its name: the light
 of the moon belongs to Diana alone!  The Gekkostate can't entirely dodge,
 but Renton sorties at the last minute in a 909, determined to save Eureka
 and Talho (and unborn kid) along with the rest of his friends.  There's no
 way Renton can win, but as Apollo yells at him to stop something amazing
 happens: the Aquarion _teleports_ in from wherever, with Touma at the
 controls.  Time to punish that naughty moth that seems to be trying to
 defile the leaves of the Tree of Life.

 However, it won't fall to Touma to punish Ginganam: the Aquarion belongs to
 mankind!  Its constituent pieces answer Sirius and Apollo's call (to Touma's
 annoyance), and the two of them attempt to forcibly steal the Luna back from
 him.  By doing this instead of getting rid of Ginganam they're kind of proving
 Ginganam's point about mankind existing to fight, but just then Nirvash(!)
 appears to remind them of the miracle of their meeting.  That's right, the
 humans and angels met on equal footing to save the world.  Will Sylvie,
 bearer of such a warm aura, show that miracle to Touma once more?  You
 betcha.  You know how fun Combining in Aquarion is...

 Touma leaves the Wings of the Sun to Man once more, promising to watch from
 between dimensions as they demolish Ginganam's ass.  Renton's 909 doesn't
 last much longer thanks to Ginganam's pounding, but Renton isn't alone:
 together with Eureka, he can fly in Nirvash!  With the Aquarion helping out,
 Ginganam has no chance to survive.

 ...Which is not to say that making his time comes easily for ZEUTH: fucker
 is legitimately durable.  He can't believe his Turn-X would lose to ZEUTH
 twice, but then laughs and says that this is the fruition of "spring"
 coming to his world.  Kablooie, the end of one more ghost haunting mankind.
 Let's hope the real spring for this world is a much brighter one...

With the evil army out of the way, it's time to regroup and follow the Black
Overman, which the world's scientists have now pinpointed at a location in the
Japanese Alps.  That's become an inhospitable graveyard of various fragments of
various worlds, tossed together during the dimensional collapse.  No one goes
there these days, and if there's an ideal spot for the Black History to take
shape, it's there.  Diana pauses a moment, saddened that to the very end
Ginganam couldn't realize that the future lies not in destruction, but
creation.  If she's the cause of his error, she means to make amends by
striking down the forbidden power once and for all with her own hands.


Stage 5.3 (Final Stage): Leaving the Black History Behind

Malchio had an interesting experience while frozen inside the Agate Crystal:
in her dreams, she felt as though she touched the Overdevil's mind.  She
clearly recalls a memory of when the ice demon was alive, before it was
considered a demon at all.  Made to serve mankind in its struggle against the
Fallen Angels and other similar foes, its purpose became somehow warped along
the way -- as was that of the Turn-A.  The likely culprit is the spacetime
shockwave that occurred at the climax of the Black History, every bit as
powerful as that of the more recent dimensional collapse.  The fear instilled
in the people must have been what altered the intentions of the Overdevil:
to quell the people's fear, the Overdevils and Turn-A decided to reboot
_everything_.

The particular Overdevil Kids got his hands on was special, having escaped all
control and gone on its personal rampage.  Only the "long-haired Overman" was
able to freeze it to sleep inside the Agate Crystal... and although the
apparition in the Overdevil's memory resembles King Gainer, the color is wrong.
It was a Black Overman, with a pure soul that loved the righteousness in man...

ZEUTH ventures deep into the wreckage left by the dimensional collapse,
which includes such enormous objects as an entire colony from the Gundam
universe.  If anyone needed proof that the past can't always be lived down,
here it is.  The Black Overdevil's personal guard (as it were) show up
presently, and there are an awful lot of them.  The Black Overman itself is
nowhere to be seen, but Amuro guesses it will show itself if its troops are
taken out.  Gainer is quiet, as though sensing something, but Rand is anything
but quiet: all these machines aren't doing mankind any good, and thus they
need to get trashed.

 Sure enough, the Black Overman appears once enough of its lackeys get offed.
 But it doesn't appear to have anyone piloting it -- as Liina pithily remarks,
 humans aren't the only beings with souls.  Gainer is now sure that the Black
 Overman actually has a soul of its own, which was what was calling to King
 Gainer (and King Gainer calling to it in turn).  In fact, these King Gainers
 are from parallel worlds, and they both shouldn't exist in the same place.

 The voice that Ginganam heard now becomes audible to all of ZEUTH, asking
 them if mankind has any meaning.  The question isn't a rhetorical one: the
 mech is sincerely curious, and Quatro at least has to admit that humans are
 darn good at killing both each other and their own environment off.  As
 usual, the mecha has a god complex and thinks it can judge humans unfit for
 continued existence.

 Fortunately Shinn isn't taken in: the only beings here fit to judge mankind
 are man himself.  Or, as Kouji puts it: life is its own raison d'etre.
 Sure there are some bad apples among mankind, but there's certainly no way
 for man to improve if everything is cut off now.  If man messes up the
 environment or whatever, it can un-mess it up too.  It's the belief in that
 possibility that led Quatro to stand alongside Amuro and the others today.
 The Black Overman seems dubious, and it seems the team must choose the way
 of battle to protect that they hold most dear.

 The Black Overman is at least nice enough to tell the team its name: Xan,
 homophonous with the word for "sever".  Gainer tells Xan that it's time to
 put the Black History behind them all.

 It appears at first that Xan can't even be scratched by ZEUTH's weapons...
 which sucks since its attacks certainly can scratch ZEUTH.

 Taking Xan out is vastly harder than it looks at first, but when you manage
 it, it dashes to the side of the board and... vanishes!  The Executors all
 explode, linked to the loss of their master controller.  Welp, the world is
 safe for democracy once again, and only Gainer seems morose.  Xan told him
 mentally "thank you" the moment before expiring.  From what Gainer could
 tell while fighting it, Xan actually loved mankind with all its heart, and
 was fighting to keep the world as a whole safe.  Perhaps it's that love for
 mankind that let it become the master unit for the Executor system after
 all.  Maybe what it really wanted was for someone to come along who was
 strong enough to destroy it, and by doing so to keep the humans safe.

 There's no way of knowing for sure, but there's one thing certain: now that
 ZEUTH has made such grand claims about humanity's potential, they've got to
 help those humans live up to it.  If the old war is over, a new war begins
 now: to make the world a better place.  Gainer will treasure the thought
 that he'll see Xan again one day, and both Rand and Setsuko hope that they'll
 see everyone in ZEUTH again before too long...

---

There is no remaining method to figure out what the ghosts of the Black
History known as the "Executors" really wanted.  Did the people who survived
the spacetime collapse believe mankind was needed on Earth?  Presumably that
answer will fall to those alive on Earth now to decide.  If mankind be truly
foolish, its fate would have been to perish along with the planet...  Yet the
planet remains, along with the wishes of those who fought believing in the
future.

Though the first year of the multidimensional calendar is drawing to a close,
the world will live on.

-- from "The Founding of the Multidimensional World", chapter 1

                         T H E   E N D

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