The Vesalius

"What did you say?!"

Aboard the Vesalius.

Yzak stared in disbelief at Athrun and Michel as they entered the lounge. "Ino's MIA?!"

MIA meant missing in action.

In the lonely, frigid reaches of space, being missing in action was more or less the same as being dead.

"When the Strike Gundam attacked me, Ino tried to save me... He was hit head-on by the Ship-Slicing Blade."

Michel clenched his fists and lowered his head, forcing the words out with difficulty.

The guilt in his heart was nearly consuming him.

If he'd listened to Ino and stayed out of his way, then even if they'd ultimately failed, everyone could have come through all right.

But because he'd meddled recklessly, their formation for attacking the Archangel had fallen into disarray, and Orni and Axi had lost their lives.

And in the end, Ino had even been struck by the Strike Gundam while trying to save him...

"I'm sorry!"

Michel lowered his head and spoke again, his eyes red.

Thud!

"You think saying you're sorry is enough?!"

Yzak punched Michel in the head, grabbed him by the collar, and roared.

"Yzak!"

"Yzak, don't!"

Nicol and Dearka hurried over to break them up.

Michel didn't answer. He only turned his face aside, unable to meet Yzak's gaze.

"You idiot..."

Looking at Michel's pathetic state, Yzak didn't even know what to say to him.

At last, Yzak shoved Michel away, shot Athrun a furious glare, and left the lounge.

"Yzak, where are you going?" Dearka called after him.

"I'm going to find Captain Le Creuset. There's no way Ino could've died in a place like this! No way!"

Yzak's voice carried back from the corridor. "So he has to be somewhere, waiting to be rescued!"

"Wait up! I'm coming with you!"

Dearka hurried after him.

"I... Athrun, Michel, are you two coming?"

Nicol was about to follow them, but paused to look back at Athrun and Michel. After all, the two who might feel the most guilty were the ones who'd been there but hadn't managed to save Ino.

"I'm going!"

Michel abruptly raised his head. His voice carried a hint of madness. "If something really happened to Ino, I'll drag the Strike Gundam down with me and avenge him, even if it kills me!"

Rusty was dead. Orni was dead. Axi was dead. And in the end, Ino had even... because of him...

Guilt and rage were nearly burning away all reason.

Athrun instinctively opened his mouth, but in the end, no words came out.

What could he even say at a time like this?

All he could do now was hope that the one piloting that Mobile Suit hadn't been Kira. Otherwise, what had happened to Ino would drive Yzak and the others completely mad.

He didn't even know how he could face this himself.

"Mille, did you detect a distress signal?"

Captain Le Creuset brought Athrun and the others to the bridge.

"Yes, but the signal disappeared very quickly, so..." Mille, the CIC responsible for communications monitoring, replied gravely.

Pain showed on Athrun and the others' faces.

Michel bit down hard on his lip, his eyes blazing with murderous intent.

A distress signal was good news, because it meant the person hadn't died on the spot.

But it wasn't good that the signal had appeared and then disappeared so quickly.

There were normally only three possible reasons for a distress signal to appear and then vanish.

First: Ino Kamal had been rescued, so there was no longer any need to keep sending the signal. But they knew that was impossible.

Aside from their ship and the Archangel, there were no other vessels nearby capable of carrying out a search-and-rescue mission.

Second: Ino Kamal's Mobile Suit had been captured by the Archangel, making Ino a prisoner. But this was unlikely.

Unless the people aboard the Archangel had lost their minds, they wouldn't touch a Mobile Suit sending out a distress signal under these circumstances. That would be tantamount to revealing their position.

Third: he had been swallowed by the colony's wreckage.

After a colony broke apart, all sorts of factors could trigger chain explosions or other disasters. And Ino had been separated from the colony's interior amid the debris.

So being swallowed by the wreckage was the most likely possibility.

Le Creuset furrowed his brow at the news.

He didn't quite believe Ino Kamal had died just like that.

He had no reason for it; he simply had a feeling.

But judging from Michel's last glimpse, the odds that Ino had been killed were indeed very high.

He'd been hit head-on by the Ship-Slicing Blade. Though it hadn't struck the cockpit directly, a damaged Mobile Suit could easily be caught in the colony's wreckage in those conditions.

Could he really be dead?

The atmosphere on the bridge grew somber as well, with Athrun and the others there.

After a brief silence, Le Creuset addressed Athrun and the others, their expressions downcast. "How long do you intend to grieve?"

"Ino Kamal's fate is tragic, but you mustn't forget what brought him to this."