With the medical technology the Federation had, it only took Taki a week to recover from all of the injuries he sustained from his unfortunate mission. When he was finally released, his body may be ready to return to the fight, but his soul wasn't. Instead of reporting for duty, Taki chose to lock himself up in his room.

He lost her. After everything he promised to her, he lost her.

Taki couldn't stop blaming himself for her death. He thought if he was just a bit stronger. If he was just a bit more aware of the nature of their mission. She wouldn't have died. She would be going back to the base with him, even if she was injured, at least she would still be alive.

Now, she was gone forever.

While Taki was grieving the death of his lover, the war continued. The Federation would have been fine without their two best pilots if not because of the Separatist's new ace pilot. One that easily defeated normal pilots and could stand toe-to-toe to multiple ace pilots at once and still came out victorious.

She called herself Athena, and she was a huge threat to the Federation as no pilot in the Federation was skilled enough to fight her. Well, except for one. And the Federation president was well aware of this. He knew only Taki had the skill to fight against their new threat.

That's why the president decided to visit the grieving pilot personally. Hoping he could convince him to return to his duty and defeat Athena.

"The Federation needs you son. Without you, many innocent people are going to die," the President said, standing behind Taki sitting in front of his window. In his hand was a tablet, filled with pictures and videos of him and his dead lover.

Taki ignored him, staring blankly into the void outside. He already lost the one person he held dear the most. He had no more reason to live or even fight for the Federation. He just wished to be left alone.

"The Separatist has a new ace pilot that called herself Athena. From what our  spies could gather, it seems like she is the one responsible for Luna's death."

Those words hit Taki hard. It made him realize that the one who killed her lover was a missile, launched from a mecha. He didn't remember what it looked like, but if what the president told him was the truth, then Taki still had one last thing to do.

He stood up from his chair and placed the tablet on a nearby table. His eyes were now filled with determination. After so long without a purpose, he finally had one.

"Fine. I will fight. But only to defeat Athena, nothing else," he said.

"That's all I'm asking for," the president said with relief, "See you back in duty, son."

The president left, leaving Taki to prepare. After a brief consideration, Taki decided to let go of his old identity and don a new one. Ares, the God of War, was his name henceforth. And he would stop at nothing until he took down Athena, the one responsible for Luna's death.

Athena spent all of her time in the mecha bay inside of the flagship Eternal, where she was assigned to by her superiors. It was one of the strongest flagships the Separatists had.

The sound of metal clashing and the hissing sound of welding accompanied her time there. With the size of a mecha being only around 5 meters tall, the flagship housed hundreds of them in its mecha bay, just enough to ensure the floor won't collapse under the weight. Each one of them had to be maintained regularly, which made it incredibly rare for the place to have a peaceful time.

But she didn't really mind. After all, all those noises helped her drown her sorrow and distracted her from her pain.

Most of her time there was focused on repairing and improving her mecha, but in the rest between those, she spent it on a trip to the past. She knew it was unhealthy, but she couldn't help it. Every time she had free time her mind just wander to him, and how both she and her lover were betrayed and left to die by the Federation.

She had no photos or videos she could stare at. All she had of her dead lover was the image embedded in her head and her memories of their time together. Sometimes tears rolled down her cheek, but they were luckily hidden underneath her mask.

One day, as she was resting on her pilot seat, a voice called out from down below. She peeked down to found out it was her commanding officer, a man with short black messy hair. It was the third time they talked to each other outside of battle, the first time being when he was introduced to her and the second one was on her first mission.

"Athena!" he called out.

After making sure her blue plain mask was still covering her face, Athena jumped down from her mecha's pilot seat and onto the ground, right before her commanding officer.

"We got a mission. We are going to attack Helsinki to take the-"

"I don't need all this crap. Just tell me what the mission is about, what I'm going to do, and be done with it."

The officer couldn't help but let out a sigh. Her attitude never changed. Cold and distant from everyone else. As much as she was a valuable asset to the Separatists, she was also a pain in the *** to work with. She rarely followed orders and sometimes even went off on a bloody rampage on Federation territory.

"Your mission is to help the ground units secure one of the Federation's main cities," the officer said, cutting out all the explanation he had planned to tell her.

"Got it," she said before climbing up into her mecha's left legs and returned to her spot from before on the pilot seat.

"One more thing!" her commanding officer suddenly shouted, "The Federation is said to have a new ace pilot, but no one knows how dangerous he is, so be careful!"

When there was no response from the female pilot, he just gave up and walk away.

The news about a new pilot didn't faze her. She had fought against countless ace pilots of the Federation, and none of them were an actual threat to her. In the end, only one person could match her in a battle, and that person was dead.

What mattered to her more was how much taking the city would hurt the Federation. She remembered Helsinki as a mining planet, highly valued by the Federation. She wondered how they would react if they lose it.

Everything around her suddenly shook for a brief moment, a sign the flagship just entered jump speed. While waiting for the jump to finish, Athena decided to take a nap. It was a dreamless nap, and a couple of hours later, the alarm was sounded, signaling to the flagship's inhabitants that it was going to soon enter the battle zone.

Athena, awoken by the sound of the alarm, sat properly inside her mecha and placed a helmet on her head, synchronizing her neurons to the machine. After the sync was completed, her mecha door closed and her mecha started moving. Her body stayed motionless as the order from her brain that used to move them around was rerouted to her mecha, allowing her to move them around as fluently as her own body.

She watched all of the mechanics and non-essential personals rushed out of the hangar to avoid being sucked out to the void of space. She then walked past some of the other pilots, internally cursing them for the time it took them to just get into their mecha.

After all of the pilots were in their mecha, the hangar door opened, revealing that the battle had already started between cruisers of both sides. Before the door was even fully opened, Athena already turned on the thrusters on the back of her mecha and launched herself out.

"Athena! Regroup with the rest before landing at the given coordinate!" she could hear her commanding officer ordered her through the comms.

"No need. I'm going in."

"At-" he tried to stop her, but she cut off her communication before he could speak further. In the end, the other soldiers were just slowing her down. She could do it all by herself.

Her mecha shook violently as it went through the atmosphere. Thankfully her mecha was made with the latest technology, allowing it to minimalize the turbulence and the heat generated when going through the atmosphere.

As she was falling down the sky of the brown planet, she suddenly remembered a glimpse of her memory.

It was her first time entering Earth's atmosphere. All new pilots were trained there.

Back then, she was barely a pilot. That's why she panicked the moment her pilot room was filled with the color of red. Her lack of preparation also severing the communication between her and her trainers down on the base.

While she was frantically opening up her manual to find something that would help her, a black mecha suddenly swooped in from behind her and moved to her front. The mecha used its body to protect her mecha from the heat.

She remembered that day not only because she almost died, but it was also the first time she met him.

"Don't worry! We got this!" said the pilot of the other mecha through the speaker on his mecha.

Thanks to the coolant gas the black mecha shot out from its shoulders, they landed, well, crashed onto the ground safely. Albeit their mecha was badly burned because of their improper initial entrance to the atmosphere. She heard the pilot of the mecha that saved her got his back burned quite severely, so she visited him at the hospital. She thought he was going to be angry at him, but he just sat there with a grin on his face. When she apologized, he said that the burn wound was nothing and he was just glad that she was safe.

She was in awe at his bravery and kindness, but not in the falling zone, yet.

"Don't mind it! Anyway, the name is Taki. You?"

"I-I'm Luna."

"Nice to meet you, Luna," Taki smiled.

The landing of her mecha awoken Athena from her daydream. She was surprised none of the AA guns fired at her as she was falling. Thought it was probably because of the other black-red mecha standing before her.

"I have been waiting for you Athena," the enemy mecha said as he drew two long swords from his back.

"So you're the new pilot of the Federation," Athena replied, pulling her katana from the back of her mecha.

"The name is Ares, and I'm here for your head."

The enemy mecha wasted no time to wait for her reply and launched itself towards her. They traded blows a couple of times before Ares managed to slash her hand a bit. She must admit, her enemy was more ferocious than the other ace pilots.

Difficult, but still beatable.

The two mecha jumped around, trading blows after blows, barely hurting each other. They were evenly matched, and Athena couldn't help but feel something felt familiar from the enemy's fighting style the longer they fought.

She was so absorbed with her fight that she forgot about the whole war. The first wave of Separatists soldiers fell from the sky, and Ares was forced to jump away as the soldiers landed around Athena. They immediately spotted Ares.

"E-Enemy mecha! Charge!"

"No! Stand down!" Athena yelled.

But the soldiers ignored her and kept charging at the enemy mecha. Ares could easily take care of them, but his fight was with Athena, not with them. A rotating machine gun popped out of Ares's left shoulder.

"Shield!" one of the soldiers screamed, but they were too late. The rotating machine gun didn't need to rotate first like its predecessor, and instead immediately started firing as soon as the trigger was pulled. In mere seconds, all of the Separatists mecha soldiers were gunned down. Only Athena popped out the shield from inside her mecha's left-hand wrist in time.

"Are you that scared to fight me?" Ares taunted.

"Tch, don't be arrogant. We were just warming up," Athena shouted while still hiding behind her shield.

After the brief insulting session, Athena store back her shield, and the two returned to trading blows. But both sides weren't going to play clean. They wanted to kill the other.

Ares jumped away from her, then used his rotating machinegun to fire at her. She blocked it in time once more using the retractable shield on the back of her left-hand wrist.

Before they could finish their business, hundreds more mecha landed around Athena. The separatist army had finally landed. Ares once fought against a horde like that, but someone was there beside him. But now with her gone and Athena on the enemy side, Ares knew that he had no choice but to make a retreat.

"We will meet again, Athena," Ares said before rushing off, avoiding the Separatists' fire as he retreated.

Athena turned her communication back on.

"Athena! Are you okay?!" her commanding officer immediately shouted through the com.

"Shut up, I'm fine."

"The pilot you just fought, it was the new ace pilot wasn't it?"

Athena didn't answer. She felt ashamed for not being able to kill Ares. Her perfect record of defeating or forcing anyone she fought to retreat was finally stained.

"This would be tough... For now, move in with the army to secure the city."

Athena marched toward her objective with the rest of the Separatist soldiers only because she needed them as meat shields. Her mecha was fast, but not fast enough to avoid multiple defense cannons firing at her at the same time. It would be easy to gun down a single mecha compared to a whole company.

On their way there, she was surprised to find huge craters scattered across the landscape around her.

"Is this our doings?" Athena asked as she and the rest of the soldiers made their way around the craters.

Her CO (Commanding Officer) explained that other Separatist ships had started bombing before the Eternal had even arrived. Its purpose was to weaken the enemy, which explained why she was not shot by AA guns on her descend to the surface.

"The only problem left was the main city, one that you are going to take, " her CO said, "They had no problem taking the barrier down, but the barrier regenerated before they could destroy the city. So they had no choice but to hold their fire and wait for ground units to take a position and strike when the barrier is down."

"I see..."

"While the timing was too short for the ships to attack, there would be enough time for a ground unit to enter the city."

"And Ares is going to be there, I assume?" she asked.

"Yes. Our scouts saw him retreating into the city after his little battle with you."

"Then, I have something for you to prepare."

Athena admired the dome-covered city while standing just outside of the city defenses range.

At the start of her mission, she considered the city as nothing more but another generic mission of taking over an enemy stronghold. She only did it because it would hurt the Federation. But now, with Ares in the mix, she changed her purpose. Now, she wanted to test Ares's determination to kill her and his loyalty to the Federation and its people. She wanted to see which one was the stronger one.

"Do it," she ordered her CO.

On Athena's order, Separatists ships concentrated their fire on the dome. At the same time, the Separatists' ground troops marched. They were of course, immediately fired upon by the city defense cannons, but it didn't stop them. They pushed their fear of death deep down their heart and continued their advance toward the city. Athena kept all of the elite pilots and the APC of the task unit near her at the front, while the rest of the unit was scattered to minimalize casualties.

With perfect timing, the dome went down when the ground troops were mere steps away from the barrier. Federations foot soldiers and mechas tried to stop them with their bullets, but they were easily taken care of by Athena and the other Separatist mechas.

Athena and her group made it in successfully, but not all of the ground troops did. Some APCs and mechas were cut in half when the dome regenerated, and the rest were left outside of the dome. She looked back at the group with her. After she made sure everyone that mattered to her was safe, she went off on her own, leaving them to continue the mission by themselves.

In her search of Ares, she came across a couple of Federation mechas, but they were easily dispatched. One of them tried to run away from her after he saw her destroyed his friends, but she caught up to her and swiftly put him to an end.

Giving no break to her, another mecha appeared. This time, it was an ace mecha. The pilot called himself an ace pilot by the name Harley. The two traded blows, but from the first one, it was already clear to her that he was no match for her. After trading blows a bit more, Athena cut off his mecha hand and he ran off while screaming he will be back.

She tried to chase after him, but in the end, lost him. She returned to her search for her true enemy.

As she was walking down what looked like a shopping district, Ares took her by surprise by appearing from the inside of a building to her left and smashed her into another building. Ares pulled out his dual blades, but she jumped away just in time as he swung them at her.

"Ambush, huh? You used those mechas to lead me to you," Athena said mockingly.

"It doesn't matter. All that matters now is that we can finally finish this battle without interruption.

Before she had the chance to pull out her katana, Ares machine gun popped out once more and started firing at her. Athena used her shield to protect herself, but his rain of fire proved too much for the shield and it broke under the pressure. She rolled into another building to take cover as he kept firing at her.

When his gun stopped firing, it was time for Athena to use her own gun. She appeared from behind her cover. pointed her mecha point fingers at Ares and fired two plasma bullets at him. Using his dual blades, he deflected Athena's bullets before immediately closing the distance between the two.

Before she could pull her weapons out, Ares pinned her down to the ground. He launched his sword toward her chest before his blade was stopped by her hands. It didn't matter. His blade still moved little by little toward her chest. It was only a matter of time before it reached the pilot cockpit.

"This ends here, Athena. For-"

Athena's sudden laugh took Ares by surprise, stopping his monologue about having revenge on his dead lover.

"Do you know why I'm alone?" Athena said after she stopped laughing "Because the other soldiers are planting a bomb at the city center, a poison bomb. If you don't stop them now, then this whole town inhabitants would die."

At first, Ares thought it would be an easy decision. He would just ignore the bomb and kill Athena as he had her pinned down and would sooner or later die by his sword. But Luna's voice echoed inside his head, complicating everything. His memory of Luna reminded him of what her choice would be if she was in his situation.

She would do anything to save the innocent, even if it meant disobeying orders. It got them into huge trouble one time as they had to fight off a whole squad of Separatist mecha to save a civilian ship. It was only because of him that she survived. When they returned to base, the higher-ups were absolutely pissed at them, but Luna stood her ground.

"Human lives are not something you just throw aside."

He still remembered what she said, her words rung inside of his head.

Ares gritted his teeth. His revenge was just in his grasp, and he had to let it go. Pulling his blade away from her, he rushed off to the city center.

Athena lied there for a moment, surprised that he didn't finish her.

"A--A bomb?" her CO asked in disbelief.

"Yea. Send one down," she insisted.

"I-I don't think I can. We need the town intact as much as possible."

"Didn't you want to destroy the town before?" she asked.

"The higher-ups changed their mind. With you and the ground troops around, they wanted to save the city as much as possible so the fee to repair the city wouldn't be high."

"Then send a gas bomb, that would be enough to kill its inhabitants without destroying any of the buildings."

"I- ... Alright. I will send down a unit to handle the bomb."

Ares rushed over as fast as he could. He turned his communication back on to know the situation from his CO. He had turned it off while he was battling Athena to avoid getting distracted.

"Ares! Where have you been?!" the female CO asked him.

"Personal business," he answered coldly.

"Look, a chemical bomb is going to be exploded at the city center. You-"

There was the sound of an explosion. And not long after, he could see green gas flooding the road before him.

"Get out of there! The city is already lost!" her CO said.

Ares disabled the ventilation in his mecha and start ascending for the atmosphere. He watched all of the civilians that didn't get to be evacuated slowly choking to their death. It was a long and gruesome death. There was nothing he could do. His hesitation caused him to lose both the civilians and his revenge.

As he continued with his ascend, he saw Athena staring at him from the top of one of the buildings. He clenched his fist in anger.

"I will get you, Athena. Mark my word."

"Let them be. I want him to live up his failure," Athena ordered her CO.

"But-"

"I swear to God if he is shot down now, I will personally take care of the ships that shot him down!" she threatened.

Her CO forwarded the message to all Separatist ships, and they followed her order by not firing at Ares and the ship he was going to, the Federation flagship Crusader. After Ares entered the flagship, the Federation fleet immediately jumped away.

Helsinki now officially belonged to the Separatists.

"The higher-ups won't be happy with letting him go," her CO said.

"Don't worry. I will kill him eventually. But for now, I still want to play around with him."