Athrun Zala's Confusion

Just as he was about to lock on to his next target, an urgent communication request cut into his cockpit channel. The communications officer aboard the mothership sounded almost disbelieving in his panic.

"Captain Zala! Urgent report! We've detected a ZAFT-made mobile suit! Model confirmed as... a Mass-Production Prototype Zaku—and it's fighting alongside the Freedom Gundam!"

"What?" Athrun Zala asked reflexively, thinking he'd misheard.

A Zaku? What was it doing in Orb?

And fighting alongside the Freedom Gundam?

It was absurd.

The Freedom Gundam was their primary target, a weapon the ZAFT traitor Lacus Clyne had handed to the enemy. It had to be destroyed.

A ZAFT mobile suit was helping the enemy?

"The report is confirmed! The unit is supporting the Freedom Gundam against two new Earth Alliance Gundams! I repeat, the Mass-Production Prototype Zaku is supporting the Freedom Gundam!"

The communications officer's urgent certainty crushed Athrun Zala's doubts.

His mind raced. A name and a defiant face flashed before his eyes.

That Prototype Zaku... Who else could be piloting it but the Super Coordinator they called 'the strongest failure'?

"Canard Pars..." Athrun Zala forced the name through clenched teeth.

He no longer cared about the Earth Alliance grunts, much less waiting for the civilians to evacuate.

Betrayal. This was outright betrayal!

After Lacus Clyne had helped Xia Ya defect with the Freedom Gundam!

White-hot anger surged from his chest to his head, nearly burning away his reason.

"I'm heading there now!"

Athrun Zala shoved the control stick forward. The Justice Gundam's engines roared, and its massive frame tore across the sky toward the reported coordinates.

After only a few dozen seconds of flight, an even fiercer battlefield came into view.

The scene was chaotic and bizarre.

Above, the Freedom Gundam spread its ten distinctive wings. Multicolored fire scattered