By In space, the various compartments of the Kusanagi join to form one complete battleship. Kira and Athrun dock their mobile suits in the hangar and go to visit Cagalli. Kira goes into her room, and she goes to him and cries on his shoulder. Elsewhere, Murrue and Mu take a shuttle from the Archangel to the Kusanagi. Kisaka takes them through the ship up to the bridge, which Murrue notes is identical to the Archangel‘s. Kisaka corrects her and says that the Archangel is based on the Kusanagi, which was also built by Morgenroete. Erica brings up a map of space, and Kisaka suggests they hide at the abandoned colonies in the L4 cluster to refill their water and supplies. Murrue says that brings up memories, and Kisaka tells her they shouldn’t have any problems at L4. Kira and Athrun come up to the bridge, and Athrun says there are still active colonies at L4 which ZAFT believes is being used by a mysterious group. Mu confronts Athrun and asks him if he and Dearka are comfortable with the idea of potentially having to fight ZAFT. He wants to know what Athrun thinks, since he is a deserting soldier and his father is the head of ZAFT. Athrun says that he’s seen many things on Earth and isn’t sure what’s wrong or right, but he says the world that they are fighting to create is the same as what he wants. Mu laughs and says that Athrun is strong-minded and different from Kira. Athrun says that at the PLANTs Lacus sympathizes with them, but Patrick is hunting her as a traitor. At the PLANTs, Lacus uses pirate radio transmissions to speak out against ZAFT and the war. To counter her, Patrick gives speeches saying she is a traitor who sold secrets to the Alliance. Soldiers raid one radio facility and find only radio equipment, which they destroy. Lacus speaks out and says that they don’t need to fight and that Coordinators aren’t any different from Naturals. In a suburban neighborhood, soldiers storm a house and kill Siegel and all the soldiers protecting him. Rau and Yzak prepare to head into space, and Yzak can’t believe that Lacus is a traitor.
At her hideout, Lacus continues her speech until DaCosta comes and tells her it’s time to go. She asks him if there’s any news, and he tells her that the Alliance attacked Orb and the Victoria Base in Africa. He says that while Orb destroyed their mass driver, the Alliance was able to capture the one at Victoria. As they leave, DaCosta receives a call on his cell phone with the news that Siegel is dead. At Victoria, Alliance soldiers search the battlefield and kill any surviving ZAFT soldiers on sight. A plane carrying Azrael and Sutherland lands, followed by another one carrying Clotho, Shani, Orga and their Gundams. They discuss the battle at Orb and speculate if Orb used any technology from ZAFT. Azrael thinks that the Freedom Gundam and Justice Gundam are from ZAFT and that they are powered by nuclear energy, which is why he wants to capture them. Sutherland finds it hard to believe, but he assumes that if Coordinators could develop N-Jammers they could also reverse them. Azrael asks Sutherland if he doubts his word as the director of the National Defense Industry Association. They board a space shuttle and use the mass driver to take off. On the Kusanagi, Kira finds Athrun in an observation room and tells him they should return to the Archangel. Cagalli comes in to talk to Kira, and when Athrun tries to leave, she asks him to stay. Kira asks what’s wrong, and she shows him the picture. He looks on the back and is shocked to see their names there. She explains that Uzumi gave it to her and said she had a brother. She asks what’s going on, and he says he doesn’t know either. Elsewhere, Azrael’s shuttle leaves Earth orbit, followed by another shuttle carrying the Gundams and their pilots. At the Carpentaria Base, Rau, Yzak and Flay board a space shuttle. Rau promises Flay that he’ll protect her, and as he speaks she imagines that she sees her father’s face instead of Rau’s. Kira and Athrun take off to return to the Archangel, and Athrun says he wants to borrow a shuttle and return to the PLANTs to speak to his father. At the Alliance’s Ptolemaeus lunar base, Natarle reports for duty and is appointed captain of the new Archangel class battleship Dominion.
Following the battles at Orb in the last few episodes, there’s a nice break from the action here. Cagalli is forced to accept Uzumi’s death and also deal with his revelation about Kira. She tells Kira the news that he is her brother, but he doesn’t seem to know what to make of it. Athrun is also going through some angst and decides to speak to his father, but that will probably turn out to be a useless effort. There’s probably nothing that could sway Patrick from his desire to wipe out all the Naturals. He rules things with such an iron fist that he even has his former friend Siegel killed for being a “traitor.” There’s also something that I should note. During Patrick’s speech, a man in the shadows watches it on TV and drinks coffee. This man is none other than Andy, who seems to have somehow miraculously survived the explosion of his LaGOWE. I won’t even bother to try to guess how he pulled that off, because it’ll probably go unexplained just like Kira’s miraculous survival earlier.
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