Visalius

"What did you say!"

Inside the Vesalius.

Yzak stared in disbelief at Athrun and Michel as they walked into the lounge: "Eno MIA?!"

MIA, or Missing In Action.

In the lonely, frigid reaches of space, missing in action is practically synonymous with being killed in action.

"When the Strike Gundam attacked me, Eno... he took a direct hit from the warship's blade to save me."

Michel clenched his fists, his head bowed, as he forced the answer out through gritted teeth.

The guilt currently consuming his heart was nearly enough to swallow him whole.

If he had only listened to Eno and refrained from interfering, even if they had failed in the end, they all might have had a better outcome.

But because of his reckless meddling, the formation attacking the Archangel had fallen into chaos, and Orni and Axi had lost their lives as a result.

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

"I'm sorry!"

Michel said again, his head bowed and his eyes bloodshot.

Bang!

"Do you think a simple 'sorry' makes this okay!"

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

"Yzak!"

"Yzak, don't do this."

Seeing this, Nicol and Dearka rushed forward to break up the fight.

Michel didn't respond; he simply turned his head away, unable to meet Yzak's gaze.

"You bastard..."

Yzak looked at Michel's pathetic state, momentarily at a loss for how to even begin cursing him.

Finally, Yzak shoved Michel aside, glared fiercely at Athrun, and turned to storm out of the lounge.

"Yzak, where are you going!"

Dearka shouted after him.

"I'm going to find Captain Le Creuset. There is no way that guy Eno died in a place like this! Absolutely no way!"

Yzak's voice echoed from the corridor: "So he must be waiting for rescue somewhere!"

"Wait for me, I'm coming with you!"

Hearing this, Dearka hurried to follow.

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

Nicol was about to follow, but before leaving, he looked back at Athrun and Michel. After all, if anyone felt the most guilt, it was likely the two of them, who had been there and failed to save him.

"I'm going!"

Michel snapped his head up at these words, his tone tinged with a hint of madness: "If something really happened to Eno, I'll drag the Strike Gundam down with me to avenge him, even if it costs me my life!"

Rusty was dead, Orni was dead, Axi was dead, and in the end, even Eno had sacrificed himself for him...

The guilt and rage in his heart were burning away his sanity.

Athrun opened his mouth instinctively, but in the end, he couldn't bring himself to say anything.

What could he even say in a situation like this?

His only hope now was that the pilot of that MS wasn't Kira; otherwise, the news about Eno would drive Yzak and the others completely insane.

Even he didn't know how he would face such a reality.

"Mille, have you detected any distress signals?"

Captain Le Creuset led Athrun and the others onto the Bridge.

"I did, but the signal vanished very quickly, so..."

Mille, the CIC officer in charge of communications monitoring, replied with a heavy heart.

Athrun and the others couldn't help but show expressions of agony.

Michel bit his lip so hard it bled, his eyes filled with palpable killing intent.

A distress signal was a good thing, as it meant the person hadn't died on the spot.

But for the signal to appear and then vanish so quickly was not a good sign.

Because for a distress signal to appear and then disappear, there were generally only three possibilities.

One: Eno Kamal had already been rescued, so there was no need to continue sending a distress signal—but they knew that was impossible.

Because, aside from them and the Archangel, there were no other warships in the vicinity capable of conducting a search and rescue mission.

Option two: Eno Kamal's Mobile Suit is captured by the Archangel, making him a prisoner, though this possibility is extremely low.

Unless the crew of the Archangel has lost their minds, it is impossible for them to approach a Mobile Suit transmitting a distress signal under these circumstances; it would be no different than broadcasting their own coordinates.

Option three: He was swallowed by the debris of the space colony.

After a space colony disintegrates, it is prone to chain explosions and other hazards for various reasons, and Eno escaped from within the colony mixed in with the wreckage.

Therefore, the possibility of being swallowed by the debris is the highest.

Le Creuset frowned upon hearing this.

He personally found it hard to believe that Eno Kamal had died just like that.

There was no reason for it; it was simply a gut feeling.

Yet, judging by the final footage from Michel, the probability of Eno being killed in action was indeed very high.

Struck head-on by the Ship-Slicing Blade, even if it didn't directly hit the cockpit, a damaged Mobile Suit in that environment would easily be caught up in the colony debris.

Could he really be dead?

The atmosphere on the Bridge also turned somewhat somber due to Athrun and the others.

"How long do you intend to wallow in grief?"

After a brief silence.

Le Creuset addressed Athrun and the others, who were looking rather dejected: "Eno Kamal's fate is tragic, but you must not forget the reason he ended up this way."