Part 246: Mission 50 (Zaft Route) - I am D.O.M.E....
As our people are heading back to the moon, Reika and Sirius run into each other in the late hours of the night.
Neither of them can sleep and, in her case, it’s due to an uneasiness over everything that’s happened and what awaits them at the moon: not REQUIEM, mind, but the truth of the Black History that lies there (she fears it’s something no one should know).
As for Sirius, he can’t sleep because of that dream of his, with the rose and the crimson path, etc, etc. He quickly spots Apollo snooping from a corner and Silvia, popping out of somewhere else, complains that it’s because he kept munching on his food.
They couldn’t sleep either but Apollo chalks that up to his stomach being empty and figures it’s the same for Silvia, who’s just too proud to admit it. She obviously protests but Apollo’s nose tells him what’s up and he figures she was grabbing a bite when Sirius and Reika came in, prompting her to hide and spy on them.
Silvia huffs and calls Sirius to leave but, on the subject of smells, he asks Apollo how he smells like before, as before, quickly recanting the question. He leaves and Reika senses that something’s bothering him but none of this will stop Apollo’s midnight snack.
Back on the moon, we have the intro to ZEUTH’s 52 with Diana’s arrival on REQUIEM and our imminent attack.
Mission 50 (Zaft Route) – I am D.O.M.E….
Also the same as 52.
As before, our people spot REQUIEM ahead but, this time, Meyrin detects 5 minutes before it’s ready to fire and we still need to focus on the two commanding ships to mess with their defense line.
Apollo suggests Sirius and Reika take out whatever’s bothering him on these folks while Athrun ponders that neither REQUIEM nor the Colony Laser should’ve existed in the first place – time to take the second one out.
Mission Objective: Shoot down the Alexandria and Girty Lue within 5 turns.
Mission failure: Loran, Aquarion or any allied battleship shot down or turn 6 rolls over.
Skill Point: Destroy all Federation troops within 3 turns, Bask and Ian last.
As before, our people are at max morale so they can easily tear through the Feds.
We’ll have enemy reinforcements coming and you’re welcome to maximize your money by engaging but keep a steady pace on the Feds. Ian is worthless but Bask can still handle a pummeling decently enough – go crazy with your SP but keep an eye on EN and ammo for the second half.
Pass some time and Gym and crew pop up, welcoming the Turn X’s brother to the forbidden land of the Moon Race.
When Merrybell asks, he tells them to attack both groups as punishment for their trespass – he may have missed the war 15 years ago on Diana’s command but, today, he’s justified in partaking in this battle!
Harry and Jamil try convincing him to accept a temporary cease-fire on the argument that countless people will die if we don’t stop REQUIEM but, nope, war is what he wants and he will not take sides other than his own. All he cares about is to charge across the battlefield with the Turn X, fighting to his heart’s content!
Corin’s panicking, telling an indignant Loran that he must be stopped lest he bring back the Black History. Gym calls the Turn A to battle and to awaken his power.
Abel is still here: he awakens and dies the same way.
Once shot down, Merrybell figures we’re perfect as opponents for Gym and looks forward to having fun with us again.
Harry figures her MS, a model that he’s never seen before, is an excavated mech from one of the moon’s Mountain Cycles.
Shoot down Gym and he talks of how he’s enjoying this far more than the Orb battle… before healing up fully.
We don’t have time to waste on him, so Bright tells everyone to focus on the Feds.
Bask and Djibril go down the same, with Scirocco enjoying it so much.
As before, D.O.M.E. stops REQUIEM’s second blast and, when the Revolutionaries arrive, Haman is right with them.
Before a three-way battle starts, Diana tells everyone to cut that shit out and come inside for THE TRUTH. Gym doesn’t care about that stuff, mind, but Diana says it’s precisely people like him that SHOULD be told about it.
In that case, Gym accepts to stand by in the Turn X and watch everything from the cockpit and, this time, Loran offers to stay here and keep an eye on him while Diana’s doing her thing. Gwen, for one, is very much looking forward to all this.
Garrod’s meeting with Tifa and the subsequent start of the convo in D.O.M.E.’s room is still the same, though Scirocco doesn’t take Haman’s sass at him being worse than Durandal when she herself used ZEUTH to destroy the Colony Laser.
Everything else is as 52 and Haman still praises Camille for his understanding on Newtypes but, this time, she’s surprised that someone like him grew under Char’s care.
Black History reveal doesn’t change, either. This time, it’s Sirius who sneers at the irony of us coming here to learn the truth and, instead, learning that it’s the outcome of our actions and humanity’s sins. Apollo doesn’t like where he’s getting at but the fact still remains that we’re headed towards the Black History as we speak.
The scene goes as before, with Sirius playing the part of Dr. Wily but D.O.M.E. slapping Jamil around will wait for a bit – he turns on the end of the Black History video after telling Zaidel to cut his crap out.
The video scene lasts for just a little bit, as there are those who want to make the contents of this recording a reality again…
The base comes under attack and everyone figures Gym’s done waiting and rush back out. Bloodman and Zaidel are crying in a corner and Lancerow tells them off while Tifa (she’ll join as a sub-pilot in the epilogue) asks that Garrod come back safe – they’ve a future to build together.
When Sochie complains that Loran didn’t keep a good eye on Gym, he says the attack came from elsewhere. Yes, it’s the bros and, like before, they blast Zaidel and Bloodman.
Gym already likes their pro-war agenda and the bros reveal the Destiny Plan and whatnot. Haman also confirms that Durandal’s going to implement it once the Feds are dealt with and figures he’ll even be happy to hear that Zaidel’s gone.
Regardless, she has her own plan – different from ours and Scirocco’s - for how humanity should be led and pulls out.
Fast forward, the bros move to destroy REQUIEM with Diana still inside, Loran intervenes (Gym’s about to do the same) and triggers the Moonlight Butterfly. Cue Gym piggybacking on the Turn A’s data to get his own mech going and wrecking Agrippa for trying to get rid of Diana.
He leaves and we’re left with an annoyed Sirius and the bros to beat.
Fast forward a few and the Federation arrives, led by Löwen. Scirocco deploys right after but, as before, he’s too busy being smug and scheming to attack us and is still determined to set humanity down the path he wants.
He leaves us, fools, to kill each other against the bros and Löwen covers his retreat – Scirocco “thanks” the brothers for their services and, in return, won’t do anything against them today. Shagia asks if he’s planning on letting them loose in order to use them like he did with Djibril and Bask but no: “I hold no such lofty expectations for failures like yourselves, Category-F.”, Scirocco sneers.
He runs off, leaving the brothers to rage and us to ponder the danger Scirocco poses – a different kind from Durandal’s but just as threatening to mankind’s future.
Löwen calls us out to fight and isn’t fazed that they’ve lost REQUIEM as his everlasting loyalty to Edel has the Chimera’s true ultimate weapon. This is the same as 51.
Löwen has a surprise gift for us, though: Glenn in the Aquarion Alpha.
Cue the scene from 48 but with Löwen bragging that they managed to get a hold of the Fallen Angels’ power from a source we know well: Kazami and the research he did on Futaba. He couldn’t study it in depth thanks to our intervention but Löwen promises the Federation will make excellent use of what he sent over.
As our people witness the grotesque spectacle, Shagia yells of how humans’ true nature is one that’ll easily abuse others in the interest of self-gain and that’s why, Olba says, this world must be destroyed.
Löwen tells the traitors to shut up as their plan puts them at odds with Edel, which makes them targets to be eliminated along with us. He tells Glenn to destroy everyone and all the Aquarion folk can do is try to put a stop to him.
Our people, like in 51 ZEUTH, try to get Löwen to reconsider – this is hardly the time for anyone to try to push their own agenda onto the world – but he’s too Edel-crazy to listen and runs off.
Take out Glenn and things go down like in ZEUTH 48, with Sirius leaving with Touma.
The bros are loving this, of course, and Shagia laughs at Sirius despairing over humanity. Apollo asks what the hell they think they know but Olba says they DO know all about the pain that Sirius is feeling and, like it is with them, it won’t go away until everything is ashes.
Of course, they mean to make sure we’ll never have a chance to confront Sirius about it. Silvia then tells them to shut up, we get the Aquarion Angel scene and it’s back to work.
Wreck the bros and they run off like in ZEUTH 52. The Elements are pretty bummed out but Apollo tells them to get their stuff together as they now have another job to do.
Loran also ponders the revelation that we’re one of the forces that’d bring the Black History about and how the Turn A would destroy the world but he still refuses to allow that to be our future.
Back in D.O.M.E. our people told him of what happened outside and Jamil has his convo with it.
Silvia, in turn, asks D.O.M.E. to tap into his Black History archives and give her some explanation over what happened to Sirius but Apollo tells her to stop: “Whatever answer’s in there, it don’t change what we’re gonna do. Ain’t no use breaking your head over this.”, he says.
D.O.M.E. agrees and segues into his “the black history is your future, so go change it”, the advent of the Great Power and his and the epilogue from 52.
With Haman gone, Char tells D.O.M.E. of how he’ll keep what he said about Newtypes in mind but will look for his own answers – D.O.M.E. approves. Finally, there’s Tifa’s convo to offer her Spirit Commands to Garrod.
Our people will be escorting Diana over the Moon Race’s capital, where she vows to support our struggles from, and she asks that Harry continue to accompany ZEUTH as her soldier and representative of their people.
She figures unleashing the truth of the Black History will invite even greater unrest into the world and it’s all the more reason why we must all keep hard at work. She trusts we’ll be responsible with our usage of the Moonlight Butterfly and that it could be a force that’ll allow us to avoid going into the Black History (Gwen says he’ll relay those words to Laura).
With that in mind, the only option is to take up arms in order put an end to all the conflict before it all goes to hell and Heizaemon ponders the contradiction of all that. Still, Diana has faith that we’ll pull through so long as we keep that unwavering conviction in our hearts.
With the Colony Laser and REQUIEM gone, the battle between the Federation and the Allied Army should cool down for a bit and Holland figures we could use this time to head back to Earth to check on what the demons and OverDevil could be up to – can’t well leave them to their own devices – and, also, Norb wants us to go to the Vodara Shrine.
Check the Bazaar after this to grab your G-bits, too.