The Arios released its bombs over the poppy plantation, turning the healthy plants into heaps of ash in a matter of seconds. Although this particular plantation also dealt their produce to pharmaceutical companies, a large portion of their plants were sold as illegal drugs--opium.

-Let's go, Mia.- Allelujah commanded. -Let's get to the others.-

"Roger that," she replied, disarming the last tank that attempted to fire at the Arios. The Blitz landed gently on top of the Arios' non-humanoid frame, laying itself as close to the Arios' body as possible.

-Hold on tight.- he said, and she simply confirmed it.

~°~

Ailee's hands shook violently, her breathing was harsh and ragged as sweat beaded across her forehead. The Aegis wasn't moving, or rather, voluntarily not moving, but the enemies were coming.

-Ailee, what in the world are you doing?- Lockon demanded angrily, sniping away at the machines that were creeping up on the Aegis. No matter what he said, however, the Aegis did not move from its spot.

Rooted with fear or shock, neither of the two men knew. What they did know was that if Ailee did not gather her wits together soon, she would not live to tell the tale of her first mission.

Setsuna weaved past the other machines, disarming them as he went by with his sword, but he was too far away from the Aegis to be of any help. The sheer number of enemies bombarding them was quite stressful, and he wished he had been allowed to use the 00 instead.

A beam of laser shot through the sky, causing the mobile suit that managed to sneak up behind the Exia to explode in a flurry of lights. The Arios had come. Soon, more of the enemy mobile suits exploded, clearing the battlefield.

-Intervention complete.- Allelujah declared.

~°~

Mia’s hand connected forcefully with Ailee’s face, causing her to fall out of balance. She sat on the floor, clutching her reddening cheek as she stared at the Blitz’ pilot.

With an eerily calm voice, Mia asked, “Do you have a death wish, Ailee?” Her fist was clenched, jaw tense. “Do you? Do you understand what had just happened out there?”

Lockon stood by, watching them with a hard look. Allelujah sighed as Setsuna merely watched, but even he sat back and watched. When there were just four of them, they’d had their fair share of these tense stand-offs. But back then, none of them had frozen in battle, though Setsuna’s piloting could have made any by-stander think so for a few moments until he struck. And this time, none of the men were inclined to hit a woman, even if she deserved a good beating for the trouble she’d put them in.

“You could have died. You could have jeopardized everything that Celestial Being stood for!” Mia growled. “You could have at least put yourself out of harm’s way, but you left yourself in the middle of the battlefield! I have never known anyone with any less sense of self-preservation!”

Ailee glared at her furiously, and lashed, "Well, why don't you try going against the people that you've always associated home with?"

"Home? You call that home? That country that threatens to throw the rest of the world into chaos? To feed a mad man's insatiable thirst for blood?"

"That man," Ailee began, then caught herself.

"What, Ailee?" she asked, her voice sliding down to a dangerous whisper as she crouched down beside Ailee as she searched the other girl's eyes for answers. "What? What is he to you that you seem to hold him at such a high regard? What gave him such high merits in your eyes?"

Ailee forced back a squeak of fear, and Mia said, "Fine, don't tell me. But if you want to be target practice for the enemy, then be target practice when there's nothing at stake. Don't do it when we're going to be dragged to hell with you," before getting up.

~°~

"You all right, Butterfly?" Lockon asked quietly. The others decided they had other things to do, and stayed behind.

Ailee kept her eyes firmly on the dashboard of the car, fighting the tears that threatened to fall. Mia's palmprint was still visible, an angry red spot on her pale skin.

Lockon quickly glanced at Ailee before sliding the car to a smooth stop. "Come on, Butterfly, talk to me."

"Why were we fighting?" she asked. "Why them?"

"Why not?" Lockon asked. He'd unbuckled his seatbelt so he could face her more comfortably. It was dark and there were few cars that passed by.

"Because they haven't done anything. They're just trying to defend themselves," Ailee replied. "Why did we have to have such a massacre?"

"That was no massacre, Ailee," he said gently. "A massacre is when the people that are killed are unarmed and slaughtered; that was a battlefield. You could have gotten yourself killed."

Tears began to fall from her eyes silently. Her shoulders shook slightly as Lockon drew her in for a hug, allowing her to cry on his shoulder.

"North Korea," she whispered against the cloth of his shirt. "North Korea is my home. It's my home, I can't just destroy it."

The gears in his head seemed to click into place. He held her tighter, wrapping his arms around her.

~°~

"Maybe you shouldn't have been so harsh on her," Allelujah commented as Mia helped Ian with the repairs on the Aegis.

With a wrench in her hand, Mia replied hotly, "You try fixing all this damage every single time a meister goes out into the field." She waved it in front of his face. "You should understand that Gundams are like cars, they're made of metal and they get destroyed. Translate: they dent and they need repairs." She sighed and faced the machine before her again.

"Besides, the Aegis was designed with long-range and short-range battle capabilities. It has mobility, firepower, and whatever the heck else you want to say about it as a machine. It can stand the beating, but it's better off doing the beating, you understand me? I designed the Aegis for someone who's not necessarily trigger-happy, but someone who can shoot when the shot needs to be made." She threw the wrench and screamed in frustration. It fell with a loud clang.

Softly, she continued, "People like her should not be out in the battlefield, neither should they be the ones deciding what they want to happen in the field. There are so many things that can happen that they don't know about. Theories can only cover so much, Allelujah.

"I don't want her to die, I don't want any of you to die because of a mistake. And that was a mistake that could have led to that," she said. "Reality is, we die just as easily as everyone else. It's just that we're the better monsters that's why we survive. But sometimes, lesser monsters get lucky, and the big ones go bye-bye because of it."

Allelujah sighed. She was right. If they hadn't come in time, not only would Ailee be dead, but the Cherudim and the Exia could have been captured or destroyed. And right now, only the Blitz and the Arios weren't damaged as badly.

"I know, and that's true. I just hope that that doesn't scar her too badly on the inside," he said, handing her the wrench with a small smile on his face.

Tears threatened to fall from her eyes, her hands balled into fists that shook from the tension in them.

"Mia, let's go home," Setsuna called, standing by the doorway.

Allelujah seemed to think twice about finishing the action of giving her the wrench. She wiped the tears before they had the chance to fall, and turned to Setsuna.

"Let's," she replied with a smile to hide her tears.