ZAFT launches its captured mobile suits — Yzak in the general-purpose X102 Duel, Dearka in the heavy-weapons X103 Buster, Nichol in the stealth X207 Blitz, and Athrun in the transformable X303 Aegis. Athrun takes the lead, and he Kira recognize each other while the Archangel prepares for combat. While Dearka and Nichol attack the Archangel, Athrun argues with Kira. Athrun demands to know why Kira has sided with the Naturals; Kira explains that he's just protecting his friends, and Athrun is the one who attacked a neutral colony. Yzak arrives to back up Athrun and attacks Kira, forcing him to defend himself.
Mu, staying out of the fight, moves stealthily toward the ZAFT warships, leading Rau to believe that his Mobius Zero wasn't yet repaired. He advances his warships, leaving himself open to Mu's attack. However, Rau is able to sense Mu's presence just before Mu attacks, and orders evasive maneuvers. Mu manages to damage the Vesalius anyway, forcing it to abandon its attack run. The Archangel presses the attack, damaging the Vesalius further. Rau signals the retreat, calling his mobile suits back to the ship; the Archangel does the same for the Strike. The ZAFT Gundams have Kira surrounded, however, and they refuse to retreat, Yzak in particular pressing the attack. The Strike runs out of power, making it unable to use its beam weaponry and shutting down its phase shift armor. Before Yzak can finish him off, Athrun captures the Strike by grabbing it and heading back to the Gamow. Athrun explains that he's capturing Kira because his only other alternative is to kill him — and he doesn't want to, having already lost his mother during the Bloody Valentine, when one of the PLANTs was destroyed.
Mu arrives, firing on Athrun and knocking Kira free. He has the Archangel send the Launcher Striker to Kira, which recharges Strike's batteries, reactivating its phase shift armor just as Yzak makes what would have been a killing blow. Kira counterattacks, damaging Yzak's Duel and forcing the ZAFT units to retreat. On the Gamow, Yzak manhandles Athrun, blaming him for failing to destroy the Strike. Dearka agrees with Yzak, but Nichol comes to Athrun's defense. Rau receives a summons to appear before the PLANT Supreme Council, which he speculates is in reference to Heliopolis' destruction. He orders the Gamow to remain on station and continue opposing the Archangel, while he returns to the PLANT homeland with the Vesalius as ordered. On the Archangel, Kira refuses to leave the Strike's cockpit, and has to be coaxed out by Mu. Flay clings to Sai in the halls, calling him a jerk for leaving her alone while she was scared during the battle — Sai appears rather surprised by the unexpected attention. The Archangel docks at Artemis, but before they land Mu has Kira put a lock on the Strike's OS, so that no one but Kira can activate it. Sai and Flay watch as the Archangel docks, Sai explaining that Artemis is surrounded by a lightwave barrier, a defensive shield that blocks both physical and energy weapons, and Flay expresses relief at arriving in a safe place.
However, the Archangel and crew are greeted with guns and weaponry pointed at them...
Tropes used in this episode:
- Big Damn Heroes: Mu showing up to let Kira escape from Athrun.
- Deflector Shields: The lightwave barrier.
- Fatal Flaw: The Strike's limited energy supply.
- Five-Man Band: The Le Creuset Team operates in full force for the first time in this episode.
- Psychic Link: There appears to be one between Mu and Rau, which is how Rau anticipates Mu's attack before it happens.
