The ambush was a gamble—a hail of container bombs detonated point-blank. Yet, as the thick, black smoke parted, the Providence Gundam emerged nearly unscathed, its Phase Shift armor shimmering with defiant resilience.
"…That container just now—where did you pull it from?" Rau Le Creuset's voice crackled over the open channel, tinged with genuine curiosity. "I didn't see you carrying anything of the sort."
Good, Axel thought. I've managed to plant a seed of doubt. By keeping Rau off-balance, he'd forced the man into a defensive posture. In a duel between aces, the one who hesitates to predict their opponent's next move is the one who loses.
"Who knows?" Axel countered, his voice steady. "Maybe it was right in front of you the whole time, hidden in a blind spot."
"Heh... You truly are a fascinating existence," Rau chuckled, though the sound was devoid of warmth. "But no matter how intriguing you are, you have done nothing but obstruct me at every turn. To me, you are a nuisance—an obstacle that must be removed."
"Obstructing you, huh? Is your hatred for humanity really that deep?"
"…It seems you know me better than I know myself," Rau replied, his tone dropping into a low, venomous growl. "But if you know the truth, then surely you understand. You understand why I must loathe this world."
"Because of Al Da Flaga?"
"Precisely! I am but a shadow of that fool—a clone of a man who believed he could buy even his own immortality with gold!"
"Even if you're a clone, you aren't Al Da Flaga. You're Rau Le Creuset," Axel said, gripping the controls. "I'll ask one last time: will you join us? We of the Shadow Mirror possess the technology to create artificial life. We might be able to fix your telomeres. We could give you a future."
Silence fell over the comms. For a few heartbeats, the gravity of Axel's offer—the chance to fix the genetic decay that was eating his life away—seemed to give Rau pause. But the silence was fleeting.
"If you had asked me sooner... perhaps before this war began... I might have taken your hand," Rau said, his voice rising with a frantic, tragic finality. "But it is too late! The gears have turned! The end has already begun!"
"…I see. Then—"
"Yes! Let us settle this! I will strike you down and usher in the day of ruin! I will be the one to bring it all to an end!"
The Providence's back-mounted Dragoon pods detached, joined by the smaller units at its waist. Like a pack of wolves encircling their prey, the remote weapons swarmed toward Axel's Glowsaver.
"Phantoms, go!" Axel roared.
He wouldn't let them close the distance. Linking his mind to the T-LINK System, Axel deployed his own remote units. Unlike the previous skirmish, he unleashed everything: the 12 Phantoms from the Glowsaver and the 16 from the Chronos. Twenty-eight points of light darted into the void.
Phantoms versus Dragoons—a dance of kindred but distinct technologies. Axel's focus narrowed to a razor's edge. With practiced reflexes, he drew his Halberd Launcher in his right hand and the Gun Rapier in his left, leveling them at the Providence.
"Focus."
As the mental command took hold, Axel's perception slowed. Every twitch of the Providence, every flicker of its thrusters, became clear. Rau reacted to the dual-wielding threat, aiming his beam rifle and the beam port on his composite shield.
Axel saw the flash of the beam before it even left the barrel. Rather than manual steering, he let the T-LINK System translate his thoughts directly into movement. The Glowsaver's thrusters flared, shifting the machine a fraction of a second before the beam tore through the space he had occupied.
"I've got you!" Axel shouted.
He fired the Halberd Launcher. The massive beam swallowed Rau's return fire, surging toward the Providence with undiminished power.
"!?"
Rau's response was desperate and brilliant. He swung his left arm down, jettisoning the composite shield directly into the path of the beam. The shield stood no chance; it held for a millisecond before being vaporized, but that instant was all Rau needed. The Providence boosted out of the line of fire.
In the same breath, Axel felt a Dragoon closing in from his six. Without looking, he whipped the Gun Rapier backward, snapping off a shot that shattered a small Dragoon unit attempting to flank the Chronos.
"As expected of ZAFT's ace," Axel muttered.
"Hmph. And you... intercepting a Dragoon from your blind spot. Are you truly a Natural?"
"You're one to talk," Axel retorted, both pilots pulling back to reset their distance.
Rau's move had been clever. He'd sacrificed his shield to disrupt Axel's rhythm and escape a killing blow. Around them, the Phantoms and Dragoons were locked in a chaotic melee of beams, lasers, and blades. In the exchange, Axel had downed one more Dragoon. Two large and five small remained.
Axel took a deep breath, holstering his ranged weapons. It was time for his signature.
"Adamant Harper, activate."
The liquid metal shifted, elongating into a massive, wicked scythe. Axel sharpened his senses, feeling the machine become an extension of his own nerves.
"A weapon of liquid metal... How macabre," Rau sneered. "But it is a physical blade. You know it will have no effect on Phase Shift armor."
"Is that so? Let's find out!"
Five Phantoms, their laser blades glowing, dove at the Providence. They moved with predatory speed, forcing Rau to dedicate his attention to parrying their strikes. Rau could have recalled his Dragoons to defend himself, but he was outnumbered. Against Axel's 23 remaining Phantoms, his 7 Dragoons were struggling to hold the line.
"Accel. Focus. Direct Hit."
Axel triggered three Spirit Commands at once. The Glowsaver blurred, closing the distance in a flash of speed. He swung the Adamant Harper in a wide arc. Rau attempted to evade, but the Phantoms hemmed him in, forcing him into Axel's path.
"HAAAAAAAAAH!"
The scythe descended.
The sensation wasn't that of metal clashing on metal, but something smoother—like a blade through water. Guided by the Direct Hit command, the Harper ignored the Phase Shift's displacement properties. The massive blade sheared through the Providence's left shoulder and a portion of the Dragoon control backpack.
"Impossible! The Phase Shift failed!?" Rau screamed.
Reacting on pure instinct, Rau forced his damaged control unit to command the remaining Dragoons to fire.
"Too slow!"
Boosted by Focus and his own superhuman reflexes, Axel saw the world in slow motion. The T-LINK System's psychokinetic barrier flickered into existence around the Glowsaver. He danced through the Dragoon fire, rolling the machine through a gap in the beams to close in on a large Dragoon unit. With a single flick of the Harper, he sliced it in two.
Two small Dragoons tried to dive into his inner circle for a point-blank shot. Axel parried them with the haft of the scythe, then finished them off with a burst from the Vulcan pods and Fire Daggers.
"Focus... Adamant Harper, Nine-Tail Mode!"
The scythe's blade fractured into nine whip-like segments. Guided by Axel's will, the whips lashed out at the remaining Dragoons. They moved with erratic, unpredictable lethality. One by one, the last of the Dragoons were shredded, crushed, and detonated.
"Your trump cards are gone," Axel said, his Phantoms hovering around him like a protective swarm. "My Phantoms are still at full strength. Do you surrender?"
"Never! I have already set the world on the path to the end!"
As Rau spoke, a transmission began to broadcast across the entire Yakin Due battlefield. It was the signal Axel had been waiting for—the proof that their final gambit had succeeded.
"To all forces in this sector—ZAFT, Orb, and Shadow Mirror. This is Eileen Canaver. As of this moment, a Provisional Supreme Council has been formed, replacing Patrick Zala and the hardline faction. We hereby declare a cessation of all hostilities against Orb and Shadow Mirror. The war is over. We will proceed to sign a peace treaty with the Earth Alliance. All soldiers are ordered to cease fire and focus on search and rescue. Any further hostile action is a violation of the Council's direct orders!"
The battlefield went silent. It was, for all intents and purposes, a declaration of unconditional surrender by PLANT.
"…No. This cannot be!"
Refusing to accept reality, Rau leveled the Providence's large beam rifle with its remaining right arm and fired.
"Stop it, Rau! You heard the broadcast! It's over! Your plot to destroy the world is finished!"
"Then nothing changes! I cannot... I will not accept a world that stays the same!"
The Providence was a wreck. Its shield was gone, its left arm was a stump, its backpack was shattered, and its Dragoons were stardust. Yet Rau continued to fight, fueled by a terminal despair.
"Either the world perishes, or I do! There is no other way!"
He can't stop, Axel realized. He doesn't know how.
"…I understand. Then, at the very least, I will be the one to end your nightmare."
Axel felt a flash of anger at the man who had pulled the strings of this war, but beneath it, he felt a profound pity. Rau was a man trapped by a fate he never asked for.
"Love. Direct Hit."
Axel felt a surge of warmth and power—the ultimate Spirit Command. He channeled that energy through the T-LINK System, gathering all 28 Phantoms behind the Glowsaver.
"This is the end of the war!"
Using the Accel effect of Love, Axel ignited every thruster. The Glowsaver and its Chronos booster reached a velocity that defied physics, becoming a streak of light.
"T-LINK System, Full Contact! Gleipnir's Thread, engage!"
The damaged Providence couldn't hope to track him. As Axel roared past, he threw out "threads" of pure psychokinetic energy. They wrapped around the Providence like a spider's web, binding it tight. Rau struggled, but the threads—woven from Axel's very will—were unbreakable.
"Adamant Harper... Nine-Tail Mode!"
Axel spun the Glowsaver around, the momentum of the Providence's own drag force pulling it right into his path. The nine whips lashed out, striking the Providence like a hammer. The impact sent the machine reeling; the backpack was obliterated, and the right leg and head were torn away.
"Now, feel the Gorgon's Gaze!"
The 28 Phantoms, which Axel had positioned behind the Providence, ignited their laser blades and charged. Bound by the Gleipnir threads and stunned by the Harper, the Providence was skewered from all sides. It hung in space, a metal carcass pinned by 28 glowing stakes. Axel deployed the four heavy cannons of the Chronos.
"Curtain call!"
The Beam Gatling shredded the last of the backpack. The Linear Railgun blew the right arm off at the shoulder. Finally, the Lanze Kanone's beam erased the Providence's lower half.
"T-LINK System... SP Boost... SLICE!"
The Gleipnir threads themselves became blades of energy, contracting and shearing through the Providence's remaining frame. When the light faded, only the cockpit block remained, drifting amidst the venting atmosphere and the imminent threat of a nuclear engine failure.
"…Axel Almer, was it? ...Magnificent."
Rau's voice came through one last time. On the monitor, his mask was gone. His face was a map of premature aging, deep wrinkles carved by his failing genetics. Blood stained his lips.
"Rau Le Creuset... Find your peace."
"Heh... To have turned a wildcard like you into an enemy... that was my greatest mistake... cough!" Rau spat blood, his breath hitching. "But I have no regrets. This, too... is one of the endings I desired. ...Tell me, will you grant a dying man one last request?"
"Speak."
"In the PLANTs... there is a boy. Ray Za Burrel. He is... like me. If your people... have the power to save him... then..."
Rau's voice trailed off, interrupted by the agony of his failing body. He was asking Axel to save his successor—the other clone of Al Da Flaga. Ray hadn't been consumed by hatred yet. He could still be saved.
"You're sure?" Axel asked softly.
"Yes... I would not have him... walk the same path... as I..."
"…Very well. If his guardian, Gilbert Durandal, agrees, I promise we will use Shadow Mirror technology to treat him."
"Thank... you... Now... I am free..."
The signal cut out. Rau Le Creuset was gone.
"I hope your next life is a happy one," Axel whispered.
He turned the Glowsaver away. The war was officially over. Mu and the others would be waiting, worried. Behind him, the remains of the Providence vanished in a final, silent explosion of nuclear fire.
Axel Almer set his course for the Archangel—heading home to the women he loved.
Pilot Data: Axel Almer
Level: 38 | Kills: 374
Stats: Melee: 262 | Ranged: 282 | Skill: 272 | Defense: 272 | Evade: 302 | Hit: 322
Spirit Commands: Accel (4), Effort (8), Focus (16), Direct Hit (30), Zeal (32), Love (48)
Abilities: T-LINK System Lv.10, Attacker, Gunfight Lv.9, Infight Lv.9, Morale Limit Break, Geass (Grey), SP Boost.
Note:
Dear readers,
The Lunar New Year is approaching, and I wish you all a new year filled with success, good fortune, and prosperity!
Holiday Announcement:
I'm writing this to announce that I will be taking a short break from posting to celebrate the holiday from February 15th to February 22nd, 2026. I will officially return to work on February 23rd.
Don't worry though! During this break, I'll be busy prepping a bunch of new chapters so I can post them consistently once I'm back. I promise the upcoming parts will be even more exciting, so please stay tuned!
Thank you so much for your understanding and for always being such a supportive community.
Happy Lunar New Year!