Closing In

Far away at his home near EX-10, Gotho receives a radio message for Vanilla, who is about to join the attack on the palace. Gotho and Coconna can do little more that wish him luck as all hell breaks loose. Under the cover of air-to-ground fire, Kan Yu leads an AT platoon as they drop to the ground. Vanilla's helicopter is hit, and he bails out, intent on finding Chirico somewhere in this madness. Inside the palace, Ypsilon's new AT has finally arrived: the Strikedog. He jumps in immediately and peels out. He runs right into Kan Yu's platoon, and demolishes even Shako's AT with ease...but Chirico is nowhere to be found. Elsewhere, Chirico, Fyana and Kiderra stand waiting for Potaria to return. Instead, Vanilla emerges from the palace with the news that Potaria has gone after Kangelman himslef. Chirico decides he must now go after Borough. Deep within the palace, Kanjelman retires to his quarters, content to wait for the inevitable conclusion of the battle raging outside. But Potaria appears and threatens to kill him for all he had done to their nation. Kanjelman faces him down - but then agrees to a Balancing duel. Ypsilon is alerted that the prince is in danger, but there is little he can do now that mercenary ATs are beginning to overrun the palace. Kanjelman fights Potaria with grace and skill, but Potaria is a Balancing expert as well, having practiced against kanjelman many times in their younger days - and it is Potaria that finally gets the upper hand, piercing kanjelman through the chest in one quick motion! Elsewhere inside the palace, Chirico finally locates Borough and bears down on him with full fury. Again, the call goes out for Ypsilon, who charges back into the palace, leaving the grounds undefended. Kanjelman lies dying in Potaria's arms, finally admitting his reasons for doing all of this; he decided long ago that the only way for Kummen to be born into a new age was to test fate itself. If the old ways were destined to survive, Kanjelman's guerrilla war would have succeeded. Now that it has failed, he will allow himself and his followers to be swept away as symbols of the old order. Before he dies, he hands Potaria a small metal key. Chirico finally corners Borough and holds him at gunpoint above a deep mineshaft. The time has come for questions to be answered. "Of course I knew he wasn't the man responsible for all this...but he'd used Kummen's war and manipulated the two Perfect Soldiers all for some purpose. And that purpose...was what?"