The hum of Side 3's artificial air filled the small metal room. Amate Yuzuriha sat on the edge of her bunk, fingers tracing the worn edge of her pilot gloves. The Zeon insignia on the wall looked too bright, too proud — alien to her eyes. Every sound here felt like an imitation of something human. Too clean. Too ordered. Too… wrong.
The reflection in her metal mug caught her eyes — tired, unfocused, older than she should be.
And then she heard it again. That voice. "Amate—hang on!" Shuji's voice, just before everything vanished.
She closed her eyes. The memory surged back, as vivid as the red of the Gquuuux's armor under quantum light.
---
That Month after Shuji gone
The Gquuuux trembled under impossible resonance pressure. Shuji's voice came through the static, shouting coordinates, commanding her and Nyaan to hold the link.
The system screamed, alarms flooding her ears.
She remembered the sky fracturing like glass, the Gfred's blue silhouette dissolving into pure light beside her.
Nyaan was crying but kept shouting, "We'll find him! The quantum chain can't break! Not while we're still linked!"
Amate pushed every control, screaming Shuji's name. The resonance imploded. Light turned white.
Then — silence.
Not death. Just… nothing.
---
She remembered drifting in that void — her senses dulled, her breath nonexistent.
Fragments floated past: Shuji's hand reaching out, Nyaan's tearful eyes, the hum of their Gundams, a world collapsing.
It felt like she was being rewritten by the void itself.
When her vision returned, she was lying inside Gquuuux's cockpit. Systems were dead. Power zero. Pressure low.
Outside, a sky of metal and dust — Side 3.
She woke Nyaan through the comms. "You alive?"
A weak giggle answered. "Barely… but hey, at least we didn't explode, right?"
---
The rescue came hours later — Zeon salvage units scanning debris fields near a sealed dock.
"Unidentified mobile suits detected—structure non-Minovsky, unregistered."
The metallic voice of Zeon techs, confused, wary.
When they pried open the hatches, they found two girls unconscious.
One with red hair tangled in coolant lines; another, silver-haired, still gripping her control stick even in sleep.
They called the suits "monsters from Jupiter."
Amate woke to floodlights and soldiers.
And there she was — Kycilia Zabi, staring through a secure screen, eyes sharp as data spikes.
"Not Federation models," she muttered. "Fascinating… quantum reaction signatures unlike any we've studied."
---
They were questioned for hours.
"Where did you come from?"
"What's your allegiance?"
"Why does your machine reject Minovsky interference?"
Amate kept quiet. Nyaan didn't.
"We're looking for someone. A pilot named Shuji. If you can help us find him… we'll fight for you."
Kycilia tilted her head, intrigued. "Serve Zeon, and you will have access to our technology. I can promise that much."
Later, alone in their quarters, Amate stared at Nyaan.
"You promised her our loyalty."
"I promised us a chance," Nyaan replied, brushing her silver hair behind her ear. "If we fight, we live. If we live, we search. It's simple."
"You sound like him."
"I wish I was as brave as him."
---
Days passed. They were given clearance under supervision — "potential allies."
Engineers studied their mobile suits endlessly.
One whispered nickname spread among the crew: "The Twin Demons of the Quantum Void."
Amate hated it. To her, Gquuuux wasn't a demon. It was hope — and grief, fused in steel.
---
Then came the transfer order.
Destination: Solomon.
Purpose: Special deployment under Major Tanya von Zehrtfeld, GED Squad command.
Escort: Chalia Bull, Newtype test pilot.
Nyaan seemed thrilled. "Maybe this Tanya person will understand us."
Amate frowned. "Or she'll use us like everyone else."
"Even if she does… she might have data we need."
She didn't answer. She just checked Gquuuux's diagnostic one more time, whispering, "Don't let me break before I find him."
---
The journey to Solomon was uneventful, save for Nyaan's endless chatter.
Her silver hair glinted under the shuttle light as she recited a dozen what-if scenarios — maybe Zeon's labs held a quantum reactor, maybe this was another branching world, maybe Shuji was here.
Machu just stared out the viewport at the drifting debris of war.
"So much death," she whispered.
"Different world, same blood," Nyaan said softly.
---
When they landed, the air of Solomon hit like a storm.
Turbulent. Loud. The station buzzed with urgency — engineers shouting, mechanics rushing.
War was close here.
Amate saw wounded soldiers carried past.
This wasn't a research base. This was the heart of Zeon's rage.
A sergeant saluted. "Welcome, ma'am. Lady Kycilia's orders — you're to report to Commander Chalia Bull."
Amate exchanged a look with Nyaan.
"Bull?"
"The Newtype ace," Nyaan said, smiling faintly. "He's the one who fought Amuro Ray."
Amate raised an eyebrow. "And lost."
"Still, that makes him human."
---
Chalia Bull was waiting near the operations deck, tall and calm, his presence oddly serene compared to the chaos.
His eyes, faintly distant — the gaze of someone who's seen the void.
He nodded politely. "Amate Yuzuriha. Nyaan. Kycilia has spoken of you both. You'll be under Major von Zehrtfeld's direction."
Amate bowed stiffly. "Understood."
"Your machines have been fully restored. Power output exceeded Zeon standards. We are… impressed."
She almost said "They're not yours to be impressed by." But she swallowed it.
Instead, she asked, "Permission to inspect them before deployment."
He smiled. "That's exactly what I was about to suggest."
---
As they walked down the long hangar corridor, Nyaan nudged her.
"Hey, Amate."
"What?"
"You ever wonder if Shuji would laugh seeing us here, in Zeon uniforms?"
Amate glanced at her. "He'd call us idiots."
"Yeah," Nyaan smiled, "but he'd still fight beside us."
---
Then the hangar doors opened.
Light poured in — a golden haze against dark metal.
And there they stood.
Two giants from another universe, reborn under Zeon's touch.
Gundam Gquuuux, crimson and white, wings folded like blades.
Gundam Gfred, sleek and azure, frame glowing faintly with stabilized quantum light.
Amate felt her throat tighten.
They were beautiful, even in captivity.
Nyaan whispered, "See? They're still with us."
"Barely," Amate muttered, her voice trembling.
---
Chalia stopped behind them.
"Major Tanya will want to see them herself. She's strict, but she respects strength. Do not underestimate her."
Amate nodded faintly, eyes still on Gquuuux.
"Do not worry," she whispered. "We won't disappoint."
---
The overhead alarms shifted tone. Pilots rushed, orders shouted across the bay.
A battle briefing was about to begin.
Amate took one last look at Gquuuux and murmured:
"Shuji… I don't know if you're alive. But as long as this machine moves, I'll keep searching. Even if it means fighting through another war."
Nyaan smiled sadly beside her. "Then let's make sure we survive this one."
The steel floor echoed beneath their steps as the two walked toward the command platform — unaware that soon, a sharp-eyed blonde major named Tanya von Zehrtfeld was already watching their arrival with deep suspicion.
And in that moment, beneath Solomon's cold lights,
the ghosts of two worlds finally met.