"Do you think your words might be too harsh for them?"
Roz sat in the Jegan's cockpit, checking its equipment. On the comms, Murrue's voice came through.
Although the people from Artemis Fortress had boarded the Archangel, the link interfaces on the Jegan and Archangel—with their distinctly greenish connectors and chargers—were something these trained engineers didn't dare touch.
"Rather than letting them remain naive until they run headfirst into trouble, it's better for me to wake them up," Roz said, finishing the equipment adjustments. He leaned back in the cockpit chair, watching Kira's companions busily move about the hangar.
"Besides, someone has to step up to draw fire, otherwise it'd be hard for you too."
"…Thank you, Roz," Murrue said suddenly, which made Roz blink in surprise.
"Oh, oh… it's nothing. Did you have them go make the memorial paper flowers?" Roz glanced at the comms channel, saw it was only voice communication, and relaxed slightly, shaking his head to clear his mind.
"Yes… after I told them, that girl Flay volunteered to do it," Murrue said, lifting Roz's spirits a bit.
"I saw them. They're putting those items onto the support machines," Roz said, zooming in on a section of the full-sphere cockpit display. A red-haired woman in a pink dress was working with the boy named Tolle, loading several sacks onto the machines.
"Though it may not help, it can serve as psychological comfort," Roz muttered.
Not "may not"—it's absolutely useless. Roz knew this clearly, for as the Archangel approached the remains of Junius 7, he had already begun hearing faint sounds: The voices of "space ghosts," filled with resentment and sorrow.
-----------------------------------
As the Archangel gradually neared the remains of Junius 7, the support machines were deployed.
Roz flew out in the Jegan, following Kira's Strike Gundam.
The closer they got to the area, the louder the whispers from the space ghosts became, even causing Roz's head to throb and his control to distort slightly.
"Is that… Junius 7?" a slightly trembling voice came through the comms.
"Frozen continent…" Kira's eyes widened as he took in the largely intact terrestrial area before them.
"Ah… yes. At that time, under the operation of an organization called Blue Cosmos, the Earth Alliance fired nuclear weapons here," Roz said, forcing his tone calm despite the pounding in his head.
"Blue Cosmos? What's that?" the boy named Tolle asked, and even Flay nearby looked curious.
"It's a radical organization, but that's not important right now. You'll learn later," Roz said, removing his helmet and pressing tightly on his head, yet maintaining as steady a tone as possible.
"Ha… Kira, you go guard near them. I'll scout the area, just in case ZAFT shows up…" Roz reached for the comms switch. "Also… if you're going to use the paper flowers and origami cranes for the memorial, do it quickly."
"And… I want a moment alone."
With that, Roz turned off the comms, enduring the sharp wails and malicious curses in his ears, and piloted the Jegan away.
-----------------------------------
"Frozen lake… you can even see the fish trapped in the ice…"
"Unbelievable…"
After passing through still-intact streets and seeing many residents of Junius 7 frozen in space, the group finally reached their destination—the artificial lake of Junius 7. The wreckage of Junius 7 contained at least 100 million tons of water frozen into ice, making this the most obvious place for water storage.
Kira sat in the Strike Gundam, watching his companions descend from the support machines, holding various paper flowers and origami cranes, standing by the frozen lake.
"…Three minutes of silence."
Murrue's voice came over the comms.
At her words, Flay was the first to toss the origami cranes she held into the air.
The people on the Archangel leaned against the windows, observing a moment of silence for the deceased. Crew on the bridge also stood up.
Like a chain reaction, those who had disembarked from the support machines also threw their cranes into the air. These items carried their sorrow and wishes, drifting through space.
Among them, Christina looked toward the direction where Roz's Jegan was, grief evident in her expression.
She knew very well what Roz was experiencing—or rather, she had already seen it.
On the other side of the Junius 7 wreckage, the Jegan knelt partially among the ruins of the city. The buildings blocked Kira and the others from seeing Roz's situation.
"Ughhh…"
Roz, having shut off his mobile suit comms, clutched his head in pain in the Jegan's cockpit, his other hand gripping the empty section of the control panel.
His premonition had been correct—the memorial could not pacify the lingering spirits of Junius 7.
Roz even began experiencing hallucinations: countless spirits, as if finally finding an outlet, surged toward him.
Hands reached out as though to drag him into the abyss, sharp curses and maledictions filled his ears, and hateful, blurred faces appeared before him.
Roz knew clearly what he was facing: every Newtype's nightmare—masses of space ghosts. Many Newtypes had likely gone irreversibly insane because of this.
"How… how can I fall here…" Roz's wide eyes faltered, then gradually refocused.
Bam… Roz slammed a fist into the cockpit, gritting his teeth.
"I said… I will change this twisted world…"
Roz extended his right hand, reaching through the almost tangible faces of hatred, as if to grasp something.
"You can keep cursing me… hurling maledictions… it's fine…"
A faint golden light appeared in Roz's eyes, and a thin, nearly imperceptible layer of green light shimmered over his body.
"But this sad and insane war… I will stop it, and you will see!"
The more he fought the spirits, the more his head throbbed, as if it were being boiled alive, yet his consciousness became clearer.
The noise gradually subsided. The arms holding him down in the hallucination began to fade. Even the hateful faces slowly disappeared. Then, in Roz's vision, a faintly glowing hand reached out and interlaced fingers with his own.
It was a blurry figure with long golden hair, seemingly female. Roz did not know who it was, but he felt warmth from the hand in the hallucination.
Almost uncontrollably, Roz's right hand followed the ghost's motion, gripping the control stick. Guided by the ghost, Roz instinctively fired a shot.
A strong psychic shock washed over Roz like a tidal wave, blanking his mind.
The faint green glow in the cockpit transformed into a rainbow-like light, emanating from Roz and sweeping through the cockpit.
Roz's mind became increasingly clear, he began hearing more whispers from the spirits, and his perspective detached from his body, rising higher and higher.
Jegan, Junius 7, Earth, the Solar System… until only pure white remained.
"…" Roz seemed to want to speak, but no sound came out.
Zzzz…
White noise, like from a radio, exploded in Roz's ears.
"Unit… 514… Roz… status lost…"
The noisy white static gradually transformed into a somewhat female, lazy electronic voice.
"Found you."
After that, Roz slipped into unconsciousness.
-----------------------------------
"Don't look here… don't look here… just get away…"
Kira activated the Strike Gundam's sniper mode. The specialized targeting system directly linked to the beam rifle's composite camera, locking onto a GINN wandering in the scope.
The original supply-gathering operation had been going quite smoothly. Though the moment of silence caused a slight delay, everyone's pace was still fast.
But by coincidence, Kira noticed a civilian ship that appeared to have been destroyed, and a GINN hovering near it.
Worse, this GINN was a two-seater reconnaissance model. If it noticed them, it could call for reinforcements and attract a swarm of ZAFT units.
Though Kira was a genius pilot, he had no way to ensure the safety of the working support machines under a ZAFT ambush.
At that moment, a support machine carrying collected supplies flew across Kira's line of sight.
In Kira's wide-eyed gaze, the GINN seemed to sense something. It turned and spotted the support machine transporting the supplies.
Since Earth and ZAFT support machines are different models, the GINN immediately recognized it as an Earth Federation unit.
Just as the GINN was about to fly over and target the support machine…
A beam suddenly appeared from the GINN's lower-left, accurately striking and destroying its head.
The reconnaissance GINN relied on its specialized head for long-range communication. With it destroyed, it could no longer call for help.
"This beam… Roz?"
Seeing this, Kira froze for a moment, then recalled Roz's words: "Go for their limbs!"
Kira fired two precise shots. The GINN, still adjusting its posture, instantly lost both arms.
"Roz… Roz? Can you hear me?" Kira tried forcefully to connect to Roz's comms channel but received no response.
"Miss Natarle, Roz and I have disabled a reconnaissance GINN's attack capability, but I couldn't get in touch with him. Could you go check?"
While sending the location to Natarle on the support machine, Kira maneuvered the Strike Gundam, gun raised, aiming at the GINN's cockpit, slowly covering the support machines as they moved away from the area.
At that moment, Kira noticed nearby a drifting, powerless lifeboat.
-----------------------------------
"The location is nearby… is that a Jegan?"
Natarle and Sai were piloting the support machines toward the coordinates Kira had sent.
At that moment, they saw the Jegan standing on the ground amid the Junius 7 ruins, right hand raised holding the gun, head monitor lifted to look up, legs apart in a firm stance.
"This is Natarle. Can you hear me, Roz?"
"Sai, keep piloting the support machine. I'll go check," Natarle frowned at the silence over the comms, disengaged from her machine, and floated toward the Jegan.
"Bridge, this is Natarle. We've located the Jegan, but it's unresponsive. Roz isn't responding either," Natarle reported as she reached the Jegan's cockpit. "How do I open the cockpit door? I need to check Roz's status."
"What?" Murrue sounded genuinely surprised.
Christina, beside her, let out a sigh, as if she had expected this.
"Miss Natarle, there should be a cover plate near the Jegan's cockpit door. Lift it, input the code, then pull the lever below the keypad to open it," Christina's voice came over the comms. "The code is 0079."
Natarle glanced at the Jegan's cockpit and spotted a clear rectangular "etching." Sure enough, it was the cover plate Christina had described.
"Pffft…"
After a series of careful maneuvers, Natarle finally opened the Jegan's cockpit door.
Inside was a cockpit design different from the Strike Gundam. The next second, Natarle saw Roz unconscious in the seat.
One had to admit, the ghost that had guided Roz's actions had been considerate—while Roz lost consciousness, it had placed his helmet on him, preventing another "space ghost" incident on Junius 7.
"…Roz is unconscious for unknown reasons. We'll bring him back to the Archangel now," Natarle said, pressing her lips together with a complicated expression. "Sai, bring the support machine over so we can take him back."
-----------------------------------
"Don't look here… don't look here… just leave quickly…"
Roz felt as if he were floating in a thick sea, his body drained of all strength.
In this white space, his consciousness fluctuated, stuck in a state of chaos.
But soon, he felt a slight electrical stimulation in his brain—not strong, but enough to bring him back to awareness.
When Roz regained clarity, he saw… a huge blue Haro? With dark circles under its eyes?
"How rude of you to think that way. Can't Haro have dark circles too? Overtime is painful!"
The gigantic blue Haro seemed to read his mind, responding to Roz's inner thoughts.
"You are…"
Roz barely managed to speak two words, surprised that he could actually talk.
"Courtyard Pursuit Department, ID AP61781. Under normal circumstances, I would have been your assistant twenty system years ago."
The blue Haro's eyes glowed yellow-green, its tone lazy.
"Courtyard? Assistant?"
Roz was still confused, but at least he was sure this giant Haro didn't intend to harm him.
"Why would I harm you? Every Courtyard executor is precious," the blue Haro said, wiggling the two oval "ears" on its head. "The Courtyard is an organization that pursues the Main God Space, established by the world wills harmed by the Main God Space, and supported by the majority of world wills. The primary function of a Courtyard executor is to maintain Courtyard operations, pursue the proxies of the Main God, and repair destroyed world lines."
"The reason you didn't follow the normal process and ended up here is that when your soul was guided to the Courtyard, a crazed proxy of a Main God destroyed a world line. You were caught in the wave and became recognized as a native of this world. If it weren't for your brainwave resonance with those space ghosts just now, breaking through the signal barrier of this world bubble, I wouldn't have even known you were alive."
The blue Haro's tone grew weary as it spoke.
"Also, the destroyed world line and related derivative lines are still being repaired; the repair department has been working overtime for at least thirty system years."
"Emm… I think I understand," Roz said, feeling his worldview being washed over. While time travel itself was already surreal, now encountering two opposing time-travel organizations wasn't… entirely unacceptable?
"It's not exactly opposition; rather, the Courtyard is pursuing the Main God," the blue Haro said, showing clear disdain for the Main God Space. "Those proxies of the Main God are terrorists causing destruction everywhere. Many world lines have already been guided to self-destruction. While capturing and executing them, we also have to repair the world lines."
"Then I want to ask—why did you choose me?" Roz was confused.
"Strictly speaking, it wasn't a choice; we could only save you," the blue Haro's eyes flickered.
"On the surface, it looks like you were killed by a falling space station, but in reality, two fantastical Main God proxies were fighting in your world. By the time we arrived, your world bubble had been destroyed, and only your soul remained relatively intact."
"I'm already processing the paperwork for this world; you'll soon return to the Courtyard's proper track," Haro said, wiggling the "ears" on its head.
"Proper track?" Roz asked, puzzled.
"Yes. Normally, you would enter the Courtyard's weapons development department, comfortably assembling and forging. But now, you're doing pursuit work. Anyway, my access pass is ready. I'll check this world's timeline…" Haro's eyes began flashing yellow-green. "You have a factory here, right? We'll meet there later."
For some reason, Roz felt that this Haro was eager to enter this world to find him.
"In the Courtyard, assistants without an executor are assigned to logistics, handling data management," the blue Haro continued. For some reason, Roz sensed weariness from it. "I've been working overtime for twenty system years straight. Do you think these dark circles came from nowhere?"
"Such a great paid vacation—oh no, an opportunity with a rookie—how could I pass that up?"
...............