Alarm sirens rang throughout the Archangel.
Kira, who had spent the night lying down in Lacus's officer's quarters, finally woke up.
"What's going on? Why did it suddenly get so noisy?"
Lacus opened the door.
—Haro could open locks, so this door might as well not have been locked at all.
"That's the battle stations alarm!" Kira sat up.
"Battle stations? Then… does that mean there's going to be a battle? Kira, do you have to fight too?"
Lacus looked at Kira, who had already risen to her feet.
Under the gaze of those clear, pale-blue eyes, Kira suddenly found herself at a loss for words.
"Anyway, please don't leave this room. I'll protect this place!"
After leaving the room, Kira locked the door behind her.
She did not know whether it would help, but it was the only thing she could do.
"Kira…?"
Just then, Kira heard another voice.
It was Flay. Her face was full of unease and confusion.
She came up to Kira and took her hand.
"Why are we at battle stations again? What about my dad's ship?"
She wanted to stay away from Kira.
But right now, Kira was the only person she could ask.
Dad's ship?
Kira remembered the information from earlier.
Flay's father was currently aboard the Montgomery with the EA 8th Fleet Vanguard.
"I-It'll be all right, won't it? Dad's ship won't get hit, right? Right?!"
There was a pleading note in Flay's voice.
Only yesterday, they had been acting like complete strangers.
"It'll be all right. I'm going to fight too."
Kira did not know the exact situation either, but she could not bring herself to say anything cruel in front of Flay.
Kira pried Flay's fingers loose from where they were gripping her arm.
Flay still looked uneasy, but all she could do was silently watch Kira sprint away.
"Kira, please… Dad is all I have left…"
[Grass (a type of exclamation), that flag could not be any more obvious]
[That close-up of her fingers being pried loose was absolutely deliberate]
[Of course it was deliberate]
[The production team knew exactly what they were doing]
[I suddenly feel kind of bad for Flay. Boyfriend gone, friends gone, and with the Vanguard captain giving off that heroic-last-stand aura, the Vanguard is probably next]
[She brought it on herself]
[If she hadn't openly started screaming at everyone, Flay never would have ended up like this]
[Pay attention to the ship time. It's already the next day. Kira spent the whole night in Lacus's room]
[All I noticed was the meal tray]
[The two of them probably stayed in the room the whole time after dinner]
[Forget the baseless shipping theories. Kira didn't even undress]
[Kira was still fully dressed]
[It was just an older-sister type comforting a pitiful little sister and letting her rest for the night]
[If Flay got corrected one more time, I thought she might actually be able to turn herself around, but now I'm not so sure]
[Sigh…]
The hints earlier had been far too obvious. They were practically inviting the viewers to let their imaginations run wild.
By now, Kira had already rushed to the Strike Gundam's cockpit.
This was the advantage of not needing to change into a pilot suit. She could simply run straight into the cockpit.
"Enemy force: two Nazca-class ships, three GINNs, two G Weapons—Duel and Buster. Blitz has not appeared!"
The Archangel transmitted the current battle report.
"Kira, X105, Strike Gundam, launching!"
The Vanguard had already deployed its Moebius units to defend itself.
These were the Earth Alliance forces' mainstay units.
Compared with the Moebius Zero, the standard Moebius had no wired gunbarrels, but they made up for it in numbers.
"Leave this to me."
Yzak smiled.
The reborn Duel Gundam effortlessly slipped past the missiles fired by the Moebius units, shooting the missiles down along the way.
"Ohhh, just as I thought! This handles way better now!" Yzak was in an excellent mood.
Duel's operating system had been upgraded, and GINN equipment had also been mounted externally. As a result, the upgraded Duel had improved in virtually every respect.
More importantly, once that equipment was installed, the AI would automatically generate adaptive driver software and fit it to recorded data such as the pilot's operating habits.
That meant even newly installed equipment could deliver its best performance immediately, without so much as a round of tuning.
"Hahaha! You've got a death wish!"
Three Moebius units charged in formation, but Yzak merely raised his arm. With the AI correcting his aim, three shots from the beam rifle picked off all three enemies. Not a single one survived.
The performance gap between the two sides was simply overwhelming.
Dearka's voice came over the comms from the other side. "The frigate Bernard has been silenced! Moving on to Law! Yzak, you'd better keep up!"
"Don't tell me what to do!"
The pent-up aggression from his previous battles with the Archangel now poured out without restraint.
Perhaps it was because he had been beaten so badly before, but Yzak's skill was completely different from what it had been.
Yzak felt as though he had returned to the days when he fought the Strike Gundam.
Only this time, he was the "Strike."
"All right, now it's my turn!"
At that moment, the orange GINN also closed in on the Montgomery.
The Magic Bullet of Dusk took aim at the Montgomery. After crippling it with a single attack, the orange GINN immediately pulled back.
The Moebius units tried to pursue, but the other two GINNs appeared. The three GINNs worked together and destroyed the Moebius units one after another.
After luring the Moebius units to their deaths, Miguel's GINN charged in once more.
But at that critical instant, a beam punched straight through one of the GINNs beside Miguel.
"Nani?!"
Miguel jolted and looked toward the direction the beam had come from. The Archangel had already appeared.
"Damn Long Legs!"
Miguel had no choice but to retreat.
"We're saved! It's the Archangel!"
Allster shouted in delight, but Captain Koopman beside him stared in shock. Then he clenched his fist and punched the arm of his seat.
"Captain, message from the Archangel: Blitz has still not appeared. They estimate that the enemy fleet is attempting to intercept the Archangel…"
"I see." Koopman sighed.
There was no point saying anything more now.
As long as the Archangel survived, that was enough.
Just as the battle reached a fever pitch, the scene cut away again.
The four Gundams linked in Clasp Formation were still drifting through space.
Athrun and Cagalli were asleep, leaning against each other.
Just then, Inori's voice came through. "Good morning, Athrun-san. The Aegis Gundam's airtight seal has been fully repaired."
"Hm?"
Athrun and Cagalli both woke up.
"It's fixed already?" Cagalli yawned.
"It's fixed already?!" Once she realized what Inori had said, Cagalli repeated herself in surprise.
"Yes," Inori said. "Furthermore, one hour ago, I detected a signal from a ZAFT squad. I estimate that it is the unit you previously belonged to, Athrun-san…"