To prove his point, Siegfried zoomed the camera in and pressed Cagalli's head toward the screen, forcing Cagalli Yula Athha to look at the devastation while he kept talking without mercy.
"There, that crater. Hilde and I lived there for four days. The shop owner made great sandwiches, her daughter was cute, and the pretty waitress washed my clothes every day. Now tell me, where are they?"
Before she noticed, Cagalli's head was pinned against the GINN's display. The cold surface against her face and the undeniable truth made her feel the world she believed in being torn apart piece by piece.
"All pretty words. Just like the specialty of the Athha family." Without realizing it, Siegfried spoke words that would later be famous, though even he did not understand why.
"You know who I am."
"If we could find that Secret Factory so accurately, knowing your identity is not hard."
As Cagalli struggled to pull her head free, alarms suddenly blared inside the cockpit. She felt the pressure on her head release, and before she could steady herself, she fell backward into the arms of that hateful and annoying boy.
Before she could stand properly, the GINN suddenly lunged forward, and the G forces pressed her firmly against Siegfried's chest. Only then did she see the source of the alarm on the screen, a white mobile suit with unstable balance firing wildly in midair.
"The command unit, it is a Sieg." Whether by bad timing or some other accident, their GINN ran straight into a Sieg preparing to retreat. Recognizing at once the abandoned unit reported by Miguru, Cruze abandoned his plan to return to the mothership, determined not to let a ZAFT frontline machine fall into Alliance hands.
"Hold on tight, this is my first time piloting this thing." Siegfried forced himself to calm down, flipped off the safety on the heavy assault machine gun, and as he stomped the pedal and fired a burst, the GINN charged toward the Sieg in midair.
After several minutes of engagement, Siegfried felt like he was about to cough up blood. It was not only the pressure of fighting under Rau that crushed him, but also the heavy burden against his chest. Each time the GINN dodged Xigu's attacks, the intense G forces and Cagalli's weight slammed into his front and back, leaving his breathing broken and uneven.
"Haro Haro, analysis complete." When that long-awaited electronic voice finally sounded, Siegfried immediately handed over part of the control. Only then did he barely manage to catch a breath under Cruze's suppression.
Whoever heard of a transmigrator fighting the final boss in their first battle, he cursed inwardly, as if this were some light novel. Neither side had landed a hit so far, but Xigu was fighting with one arm destroyed, his only weapon the 28 mm Vulcan gun inside his shield. With his balance and firepower reduced so much, Siegfried did not even know if he could have held out without Haro's support.
His own GINN was far from perfect as well. Although the two Armor Piercer from the Strike Gundam had not caused structural damage and the unit could still fly and run, output was down to seventy percent, and the auxiliary cameras were still not fixed. After circling through an aerial exchange, Siegfried decisively dropped to the ground, shut down the thrusters to reduce heat signature, and relied on the machine's movement to dodge the weak Vulcan fire among ruined buildings.
"Oh? An interesting pilot." After seeing through the tactic, Rau checked the remaining ammo in the Glen Shield. Xigu also descended, trying to find that strange GINN in the shadows.
The fires from constant explosions confused the sensors on Xigu, making it impossible to pinpoint the GINN. Instead, several sudden attacks from the enemy nearly hit Xigu while it was too low. Rau abandoned his air advantage, drew the Heavy Slash Blade, and began searching for a close combat opening.
"Haro, weapon status."
"Machine gun ammo three, Heavy Slash Blade usable."
"Can you predict their position?"
"Haro Haro, too many obstacles, limited performance, unable to scan."
"Tch, just say the GINN is bad."
Pressed against Siegfried's chest, Cagalli watched this strange exchange between man and machine. The harsh breathing behind her reached her ears clearly, and the violent rise and fall of his back passed through their clothes. Her earlier anger and hurt mixed with a trace of worry, settling uneasily in her confused thoughts.
Perhaps the warm breath near her ear made her react, as Cagalli shifted slightly. From Siegfried's angle, the tip of her ear beneath her golden short hair was slowly turning red.
"Don't move, you're getting in my way." Gripping the controls tightly, Siegfried forced the restless girl in his arms to stay still. He did not dare imagine what would happen if his reaction were even a second late.
Fortunately, Cagalli was reckless and naive, not truly foolish. Knowing their lives were on the line, she twisted her hands into her clothes and endured the irritating breathing by her ear, holding her body completely still.
In the suffocating silence, the sound of falling rubble came from the GINN's left. Siegfried was about to rush out when Haro's warning sent a chill through him.
"The sound is wrong, not an MS." Before he could praise Haro for skipping the subject, he caught the flash of Xigu's mono-eye to the right. With Haro's assistance, the GINN adjusted its posture, blocking the Heavy Slash Blade with its right-side rear thruster, then Siegfried aimed at Xigu's broken arm side and thrust forward with his own Heavy Slash Blade.
Time seemed to freeze. As Siegfried watched the blade tip touch Xigu's cockpit, every plot and hidden enemy vanished from his mind. The only thought left was to survive.
At the moment he thought he had it, Xigu released the stuck Heavy Slash Blade and fired the thrusters in reverse at full power, sliding backward along the blade. Not only did he evade the strike, his freed hand raised the Glen Shield, and the 28 mm Vulcan gun aimed coldly at the GINN's cockpit.
In crisis, Siegfried dropped his melee weapon as well. The GINN's left hand grabbed the heavy machine gun and aimed by instinct, while the right shielded the cockpit as the side thrusters were pushed to the limit. With one hand, he pressed the trigger.
The machine shook violently as the GINN fired its last three rounds. One missed, one hit Xigu's shoulder, and the most crucial round destroyed the main camera.
With no hesitation, Rau judged the fight over and disengaged from the ground. After climbing to a safe altitude, the final boss in Siegfried's eyes looked at the red zero on his weapon display, then switched an auxiliary camera to the GINN. "An interesting pilot." With that unheard comment, Xigu left the battered GINN behind.
On the ground, the GINN still held its arm raised, three smoking bullet holes silently telling of the battle. Inside the cockpit, Cagalli came back to herself and realized Siegfried was holding her tightly with one arm.